scion-demigod

Dale Andrade, Dixie Cochran, Erykah Fassett, Meghan Fitzgerald, Cary Kingdom, James Mendez Hodes, Josh Krutt, Danielle Lauzon, Geoffrey McVey, Neall Raemonn Price, Lauren Roy, Monica Speca, Elsa Sjunneson, Vera Vartanian, P.A. Vazquez

2 SCION: DEMIGOD CREDITS Writers: Dale Andrade, Dixie Cochran, Erykah Fassett, Meghan Fitzgerald, Cary Kingdom, James Mendez Hodes, Josh Krutt, Danielle Lauzon, Geoffrey McVey, Neall Raemonn Price, Lauren Roy, Monica Speca, Elsa Sjunneson, Vera Vartanian, P.A. Vazquez Fiction: “Shibboleth” by Neall Raemonn Price; “Brigitte” by Lauren Roy Developer: Neall Raemonn Price Scion Lead Developer: Neall Raemonn Price Editors: Matt Click, Heather Rigby Indexer: Sarah Herrick Art: Sam Denmark, Pat McEvoy, Michele Giorgi, Aaron Riley, HIVE Studios, Farri Lensen, Niko Pope, Richard Thomas Art Direction: Mike Chaney and Maria Cabardo Book Design: Josh Kubat Creative Director: Richard Thomas IN MEMORIAM We dedicate this book to Charles H. Long. He was the last of a group of scholars (that included Mircea Eliade, J.Z. Smith, and Joseph Kitagawa) whose work greatly contributed to comparative religious studies in North America for the latter part of the 20th century. The students of that group were the people who taught some of Scion’s writers, and their influence transmits through every page of this book. Rest in Peace and walk with the Gods. SPECIAL THANKS TO James Mendez Hodes and Heather Rigby, for cultural consultation. Meghan Fitzgerald, Danielle Lauzon, and Monica Speca for brainstorming and camaraderie. Eloy Lasanta, whom I accidentally left out of the credits for Scion: Origin and Hero. Sorry, Eloy. Nathan Henderson for some Titanic ideas. Rich Thomas, for giving me a chance on Scion all those years ago. Wednesday, Lydia, and Vesper, for being little companions and staunch friends of Freya. Hiromi Cota, for cultural consultation, and also for picking up the reins. This is your horse now, Hiromi. And all of our Scion Second Edition Kickstarter backers, who made this book possible. © 2022 Onyx Path Publishing. All rights reserved. References to other copyrighted material in no way constitute a challenge to the respective copyright holders of that material. “Scion” and all characters, names, places, and text herein are copyrighted by Onyx Path Publishing. Keep up to date with Onyx Path Publishing at theonyxpath.com. REQUIRES THE USE OF SCION: ORIGIN AND SCION: HERO

Table of Contents 3 SHIBBOLETH 6 INTRODUCTION 10 How to Use This Book 12 The Pantheons 12 What This Book Contains 12 Media 12 CHAPTER ONE: STORYGUIDING APOTHEOSIS 14 The Demigod’s Journey 15 The Apotheosis Roadmap 15 Planning the Journey 16 Taking On a Mantle 17 Understanding Mantles in Scion 17 Usurpation, Sharing, and Surrender 17 Usurpation 18 In the Footsteps of the Gods 20 Fallen Heroes 21 True Callings 22 Fate and Foreshadowing 25 The Second Call 25 The Parting 27 The Threshold 28 The Descent 31 Theophany 34 Final Considerations 36 The Myth Engine 37 Setting the Stage 37 Building a Future: How to Use Divine Deeds 38 Adjusting Expectations 39 Coping with Fame 41 Image and Action 41 Disabled Demigods 42 Fate as the Foe 45 Fate’s Hand on the Scales 45 Ratcheting Up the Tension 46 Keeping Plates Spinning 46 Example of Divine Deeds in Play 46 CHAPTER TWO: PANTHEONS 48 Scent the Divine 49 Titanic Callings 49 The Annuna of Mesopotamia 52 Principal Members 52 Titans 58 Cosmology 60 Religion 61 Birthrights 62 Relationships 63 Pantheon Path of the Annuna 63 The Apu of the Inca 64 Principal Members 65 Cosmology 71 Tears of the Sun 71 Primordials 72 Religion 73 Birthrights 74 Relationships 74 Pantheon Path of the Apu 75 The Atua of Polynesia 76 Whose Atua? 77 Principal Members 77 Cosmology 81 Titans 83 Religion 84 Relationships 85 Pantheon Path of the Atua 85 The Tengri of Mongolia 86 Principal Members 86 Cosmology 93 Primordials 94 Titans 94 Religion: Tengrism 95 Birthrights 95 Relationships 96 Pantheon Path of the Tengri 97 The Bogovi of the Slavs 98 Principal Members 98 Cosmology 106 Titans 107 Primordials 107 Religion: Mat Syra Zemlya 107 Birthrights 108 Relationships 108 Pantheon Path of the Bogovi 109 BRIGITTE: PART ONE 110

4 SCION: DEMIGOD CHAPTER THREE: DEMIGOD CHARACTERS 118 Ready-Made Characters 119 The Price of Divinity 130 New and Adjusted Action-Adventure Character Rules 130 Legend 130 Birthrights 131 Creatures 131 Followers 132 Guides 132 Relics 134 New Birthright: Sanctum 138 Realms 139 Realm Fatebindings 139 Benefits 140 Realm Knacks 140 Realm Birthrights 141 CHAPTER FOUR: CHASING DIVINITY 142 Scale Revisited 143 Who Gets Hurt? 145 Fatebinding 146 Basics 146 Bigger Scale 146 Fatebinding Conditions and Roles 146 Becoming Otherwise Bound 148 Items 148 Places 149 Projects 149 Immortal Knacks 149 Dominion 154 Divinity Dice 154 Font of Miracles 155 Dominion Boons 156 Using Dominion Stunts 156 General 156 Artistry 157 Beasts 157 Beauty 158 Chaos 158 Darkness 159 Death 159 Deception 160 Earth 161 Epic Dexterity 161 Epic Stamina 162 Epic Strength 162 Fertility 163 Fire 163 Forge 164 Fortune 164 Frost 165 Health 165 Journeys 165 Moon 166 Order 166 Passion 167 Prosperity 167 Sky 168 Stars 168 Sun 169 War 170 Water 170 Wild 170 Signature Purview: Shuilá 171 Take the Reins 171 Me of the Deed 171 Signature Purview: Mana 172 Kumara’s Sweetness 172 Pono 172 Signature Purview: Qut 172 Soul’s Ransom 172 Avarga 173 Signature Purview: Dvoeverie 174 Volevoi 174 Mnogoverie 174 Signature Purview: Pachakutic 174 Kallpa 174 Churay 175 CHAPTER FIVE: THE UNDERWORLDS 176 Æsir 177 Hel 177 Helgafjell 178 Sessrumnir 179 Valhalla 180 Kami 181 Meido 181 Jigoku 182 Yomi 183

Table of Contents 5 Naraka, Underworld of the Devá 185 Naraka 185 Shén 186 Diyu 188 Annuna 188 Irkalla 188 Manitou 190 The Underworld 190 Manitou Underworld 191 Òrìshà 191 Ilé-Ifè 191 Theoi 192 The Kingdom of Hades 192 Tartarus 194 Tuatha Dé Danann 195 Mag Mell 195 Teach Duinn 196 The Veil 197 Netjer 199 The Duat 199 Mictlan, Underworld of the Teōtl 200 Chiconamictlan, the Abode of Mictecacihuatl and Mictlantecuhtli 201 Mictlan 201 Yazata 201 Garö-Demánæ 201 Druj-Demánæ 203 Hamistagan 203 Rarohenga, the Underworld of the Atua 204 Tatau-o-te-Pō, “The Door of Night” 205 Rarohenga 205 Rotos, Underworld ofthe Nemetondevos of Gaul 205 The Great Wheel 206 Rotos 207 CHAPTER SIX: ANTAGONISTS 208 New Antagonist Archetypes 209 Paragon 209 Mythic 209 Transcendent 209 Avatar 210 New Qualities 210 New Flairs 211 Cause and Effect 211 Death Curse 211 Divine Command 211 Dread Gaze 211 Hall of Mirrors 212 Invocation 212 Key to the Bifröst 212 Player of Games 212 Sanctification 212 Shadow-Strike 213 Transformation 213 Goliaths 213 Independent Segments 214 Scorpio’s Brood (Transcendent) 214 Orochi’s Offspring 214 Perambulating Jotun 214 Ixion, Estranged Scion of Ares 214 Lamashtu 215 Simurgh, Queen of the Birds 216 Bushyasta, Daeva of Sloth 216 Peri 217 Omukade 218 Animikii 218 Rigfennid 219 Iyami Aje 219 Mokkurkalfi 220 Wild Minotaurs 221 BRIGITTE: PART TWO 222 APPENDIX: THE KEEPERS OF THE WORLD 226 Principal Members 226 Imhotep, The One Who Comes in Peace 226 Herakles, God of Strength 227 Karna, Between Dharma and Adharma 227 Meng Po, the Old Lady, Goddess of Forgetfulness 228 Dorje Shugden, the Eye of the Storm 229 Takeminakata-no-Mikoto, Prince of the Earth 230 Tlazōlteōtl, Goddess of Filth and Purification 230 Tolui Khagan, Odchigin Youngest Son, God of Family 230 Wayland, the Smith 231 Zalmoxis, God of Blood 231

6 SCION: DEMIGOD The cold had never bothered Isak Kohen, even as a child. The brutality of a New York winter on Friday nights had never elicited so much as a grunt from his father, though Isak could tell he found the cold unpleasant. They jaywalked along the streets with everyone else in Brooklyn, it seemed, no matter the weather. He’d taken to wearing a jacket more out of habit than anything else, except perhaps to not draw attention to himself. The cold was just a part of Isak, inseparable from the chill outside, and he found deep comfort in the silence of winter. The Demigod exhaled without a cloud of steam and looked up. The buildings were taller now than when he was a child, he mused, but the air itself was warmer. If he closed his eyes and listened just the right way, he could hear the whispered lamentations of the suffering — living and dying and praying in famine and heat waves in the distant corners of the World as the planet slowly burned by degrees. The cold very much bothered Isak’s first companion, a huddled mass of jackets and complaints both vocal and not named Max. He gasped a little as the wind picked up, wisps of steam coming from his mouth like spurting blood, as if a blade of ice had sliced him. The winds, unnaturally cruel for July, merely fluttered Isak’s open coat a little. The third and fourth members of their group were both far more accustomed to the chill than Max. One was Rose Aishquaykezhick-White, child of CheebyAub-Oozoo. The other was a woman named Tanisha who claimed to be a daughter of Himavat and sister to Parvati; as she strolled casually in front of the group, Isak believed her claims of ancestry to have some degree of merit. Max was definitely the odd one out, but Isak decided early in their walk to not judge him for it. They shared a connection, deep and familial, that gave Isak some comfort even as they walked to battle. Idly, he wondered — was he comforted by the presence of a friend, or did something deep within him lie still when he was anticipating the shedding of blood? The only answer he found was the whistling wind. The four trudged forward in the deepening snows, sharing one another’s misery. Still, only Max complained. “How can you not be cold?” Isak’s whiniest companion hissed at him, shaking the silent reverie. “I am cold,” Isak replied. “Try to focus on that sentiment: I am cold. I am cold. The cold and I are indistinguishable. I fight cold with more cold.” Platitudes of the sort that would annoy a mortal, but while it clearly still annoyed Max, the other Scion caught his meaning. Tanisha just laughed. She wore black jeans and a sleeveless T-shirt, and she was as unbothered by the chill as Isak. “Easy for you to say. My father is a lie-smith who stole the name of fire. I wish my parent was a God of winter.” Max shivered some more. “They aren’t,” Isak replied. “Neither of my parents were.” Rose peeked beyond the cigarette poking beyond the end of her scarf, her glance skeptical, her voice bemused. “I’m sorry, but is your mother suddenly not a frost giant? Is she absent without leave from the prayers of ski instructors from Aspen to Killington?” “My mother was flesh and blood, like yours,” Isak responded. “But so was my father, unlike yours. I was born on Shabbat.” Rose blew out a cloud of cigarette smoke and shook her head, braided hair swinging gently. “I don’t get it.”

SHIBBOLETH 7 Isak took a deep breath, furrowing his brow as he properly sorted the precise feelings of reverence within himself. “Skaði is my patron and a second mother to me, special and powerful, it’s true. She chose me. But I was chosen long before, and she is a giant first and foremost. There is only one G-d.” Isak shook his head. “The fact that you phrased it that way is, hrm, a kind of shibboleth, I suppose.” “A what?” asked Max. “Shibboleth,” Isak responded, enunciating carefully. “When the soldiers of Gilead defeated the tribe of Ephraim, the survivors tried to cross the River Jordan. To tell friendly traveler from Ephramite, the soldiers made them say the word shibboleth. But they couldn’t, because their dialect didn’t have the right syllables, so they would say sibboleth instead.” Isak exhaled. There was no steam in his breath. “And then they died.” Tanisha grinned. “Moral of the story: When your time comes, Max, stay frosty. Your life depends on it.” “Huh,” Max said, ignoring the jibe. “They never really mention those stories in Pentecostal Sunday school.” “I guess they focused more on other things.” “Yeah, I never really paid much attention,” Max muttered. The four kept walking, their shoes making soft crunching noises on the fresh powdery snow. In the swirling flakes, through the low-hanging fog against a pitch-black sky, 9 DeKalb Avenue stood silent sentinel, lit and heated lower floors contrasted by the halation of lamps shining through a bare superstructure on the upper levels. A standing sign on the street, glowing LED screen shining through the thin layer of frost, listed a series of upcoming events. The most current one was Christmas in July. All around them were bodies, preserved in pallid color by a thin blanket of ice — people wearing shorts, wearing business suits, people just walking their dogs. Isak knelt down beside the body of a surprised-looking man in a black suit and kippah. “Zikhrono livrakha,” Isak said, quietly — may his memory be a blessing. Tanisha heard him, no doubt, but she granted him privacy by pretending not to. “Christmas in July. Think this is it?” Max said to him, and Isak knew what the it was before he spoke. “Fimbulwinter? I’ve been preparing. Örvar-Odd, that old fool in the tree, he gave me the key to it all for an apple seed. I think I’ve…” “No, this isn’t Fimbulwinter,” Isak said, standing up and cutting his friend off. It was honestly best if he didn’t know the plans Max had to survive Ragnarök. Hearing the prophecy might tie him to it, and he had long ago learned to avoid such pitfalls, for the law was not in the heavens. “Whatever it is,” Rose said, exhaling a cloud, “It’s been going on for a week, and this is the epicenter. Temperatures falling, snowfall, and now a deep freeze.” “At least people are saving on air conditioning,” Max said. The lobby of the skyscraper had ceilings at least 30 feet high, done in a marble temple style that would make the Theoi proud. Eleven massive columns stretched floor to ceiling in a circle in the center of the room just past the entrance. At the security desk sat a huge creature, black-furred and boar-tusked, heavy and squat. He sniffed the air blowing past the four, swung cloven feet down from the desk, planted them firmly, and stood to his full height. A stink washed over the group, animalistic and rotten. The beast gripped some sort of engraved iron rod, trailing mist and cold. Literal cold iron, Isak thought. The beast growled in human speech. Isak wondered if it was a minotaur. “I smell you, worms,” it said, in a baritone deep and rich. “It’s a kallikantzaros,” Rose said, dropping the filter-less stub of her cigarette on the ground as she answered Isak’s unasked question. She didn’t bother to extinguish it as she pulled out a leather cigarette holder with a sticker of a turtle slapped on it. “It’s a kind of big European goblin. Can’t count past two, dies if it does, really likes colanders, not known for their intellect.” The kallikantzaros slammed a hoof down, sending spiderweb cracks along the stone flooring. It was, perhaps, seven-and-a-half feet tall, but it looked like it weighed maybe 600 pounds, most of it muscle. “Goblin? Who do you think you’re talking to?” Interesting that that was what offended the creature most. “Colanders?” Isak asked. “Colanders,” Rose affirmed. “It’s snarling at us,” Max said. “It sounds like it’s trying to talk.” Isak turned to regard his companion. For a brief moment he thought it was a bit of trash-talk meant to deny the goblin’s personhood, but he realized Max’s question was genuine. “Do you not understand him? He’s speaking English.” “No, I’m fucking not,” yelled the kallikantzaros. “No,” said Max. “It’s all snarls and growls.” Weird, Isak thought. “He’s asking who we think we’re talking to.” “Some naked Greek asshole,” Rose said. “A dead thing,” Tanisha said. “Someone who isn’t where they’re supposed to be,” Isak said.

8 SCION: DEMIGOD The kallikantzaros bellowed loudly and charged. The rolling thunder of hooves shook the floors, and Isak heard more coming. “Don’t look at me,” Max put his hands up. “I’m just an honest thief.” And then Max’s hair was aflame — no, Max’s hair was flame, a flickering crown upon his head and a wildfire crawling around his chin. He grasped a pair of shears in one hand and snapped the fingers of his other hand at the stampeding kallikantzaros. The hooved creature burst into flames, screaming and stomping past the group. Isak heard glass shattering behind him and felt the cold air rush in; he turned to risk a glance and saw the beast struggling and smoldering outside. “Get the rod, get the rod!” Max yelled. “I’ve seen it before! The dead use it to measure water depth in the river Élivágar! It’s gotta be the source of all this!” Another of the goblins stomped around a corner, then came right for the Band. Isak braced himself, ice forming around his legs and rooting him to the spot. He swung hard to meet the onrushing goblin’s hammer-blow punch with one of his own, ignoring the shooting pain traveling up his arm when the two connected. The ice shattered, and Isak stumbled back. The other kallikantzaros grabbed his hand where Isak had punched it. “My hand! My hand! Aw, why are you doing this? What do you care, Israelite?” “I’m from Brooklyn,” Isak said, though the creature probably didn’t care about the distinction. “Why are you doing this?” “Christmas,” the goblin snarled. “It only comes once a year, and it came early. Lots of oath breakers and adulterers partying upstairs. This is our time.” Four more kallikantzaros burst from a stairwell. Tanisha and Rose were in fine form; both were as strong as Isak, and he was stronger than anyone he’d ever met. Descending from a mighty spirit, a literal mountain, and a giant did wonders for one’s muscle mass. “Two by two by two by two by two by two,” the kallikantzaros growled. “This is our time, and we will leave you reeling in our revelry.” That was at least 12 of the monsters, and there must be more in the building. Isak hoped that the number added up and wasn’t multiplied. He took a step back and yelled over to Rose, who was putting one of the goblins through a wall. “Rose! Are you sure about that counting bit?” Rose yelled back as a bolt of flame flew by her head. “Yeah, why?” Isak inhaled deeply; the mist from the rod outside rolled in, surrounding him. He breathed deep the air and moisture of Hel, tasted the icy waters of the river Élivágar, felt the occult sigil that amplified the chill.

SHIBBOLETH 9 Isak was the cold, though; in an instant, he breathed a bubble of air out, blowing and shaping it like glass until it stood before him, huge and spherical, a shell of ice glittering in the overhead lights with the colors of the rainbow. Lightning-quick, his fingers danced over the surface, their strength and speed leaving small holes wherever they went. All of the kallikantzaros suddenly stopped. One dropped a chair he was about to smash over Tanisha, then clomped over to the shell. The others did the same, ceasing battle with the Band. Their eyes danced obsessively from hole to hole, and they stood counting. Isak lifted a hand and shifted his perceptions; he could see the dim fire of their intellect burning deep within their skulls, like faded embers. He brought his arm down and snuffed out what remained. Max stepped up to the goblins, who could now barely stay standing. “Count for me,” he said slyly, and they complied. “One…” “Two…” “Three—” and with that, they were gone. They were kallikantzaros; the counting proved it. • • • Winter broke over July, and snow steamed upon the ground as the battle-weary Band walked outside. News vans pulled up; above, a helicopter hovered in the now-clear sky, illuminating the Band. Isak watched the mists begin to form as the ground thawed.

11 “It is a serious thing to live in a society of possible Gods and Goddesses. To remember that dullest, most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship.” — C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory To be a Demigod is to redefine your people. As a Hero, a Scion becomes a figure of myth and story, an exemplar of some virtue of their chosen society or the culture into which they’re born. Sometimes, this is because a Scion openly chooses to become a guardian of the people, or a fierce warrior against the enemies of their people. Other Scions make their names by existing outside the boundaries of their culture, reinforcing societal norms by providing a sharp behavioral contrast. There are famous Heroes, and there are infamous ones, and there are inscrutable children of the Gods, but no Hero is obscure. Attempts to lead a quiet and simple life, be it in rustic splendor or suburban mundanity or urban anonymity, inevitably lead to a disproportionate response by Fate as the Scion’s delayed Deeds come crashing into their living rooms. The Scions of the Gods will be loved, and they will be hated, but they can never be ignored — not even by themselves. Even before their Visitation, the children of the Gods are a breed apart. Scion lives are full of portents, and their heritage becomes obvious to those who reflect upon the time before their Visitation in hindsight. Even Chosen Heroes led lives so indelibly linked to a God’s Legend that adoption is more a formality than anything else; the Scion always belonged to that God, even if they were born to mortal bloodlines. The act of Visitation is never forced upon a Scion — they choose to enter the World of Gods and monsters, even if that choice is an unconscious one. Yet for all their fame and supernatural puissance and strength of will, Heroes are unlikely to be radicals and even less likely to be visionaries. They are mortal, their Legend linked to that of their parent deity. A Scion of Tyr is likely to be maimed and meet his end in the jaws of a wolf. A gigantic Nemean wolf, maybe, but definitely some sort of canine. Aphrodite’s daughter will find her beauty opening many doors, though many or most lead to a cruel, ironic end like the one that befell Narcissus. A Hero’s life is cursed to be eternally interesting. No Hero retires, but many reach old age, and a few have even gone to their respective Underworlds within the peace of their own homes, surrounded by descendants telling stories of their famous progenitor for centuries afterward. For many, this is enough, and this last repetition of their parent’s Legend continues after the grave. Some want more than this lesser form of immortality, forever in the shadow of their parents. The golden ichor within the Scion’s heart sears them from within, burning away any human frailties of the Scion and driving them toward more audacious Deeds. They seek to become truly transformational figures, leaving the World forever different in their wake. At the fifth dot of Legend, it all reaches a tipping point, where the Scion is formed more of divine ichor than mortal flesh — more immortal than mortal, a true Demigod. They have declared to the World that they will not be pawns of Fate, but players in their own right ALL MYTHS ARE TRUE But not all myths are equal. In Scion, this phrase is descriptive in that it’s an acknowledgement of realworld complexity of mythological narratives, and of the in-setting mutability of myth, rather than proscriptive — a maxim Storyguides must adhere to. We use this phrase to mean that mythic events in religion and folklore have a basis in the game’s truth, and the events typically happened in the manner in which those myths and folk tales told. If someone claims they’re the child of a God in our world, we usually don’t believe them; in the World, it’s safer just to accept the claim at face value. We don’t mean it to say that all myths, regardless of timelessness or plausibility, are literally true and occurred — although you’d be surprised at what mythology encompasses. Scion is ultimately a game: We’ve done research and thought about how to incorporate the spirit of the divine into the work, but at the end of the day, feel free to go with what feels true and right at your table. You don’t need to open any book but this one (and, Origin and Hero) to play Scion to the fullest. Demigod takes this a step further. Many myths are about how epic Heroes changed the World forever. Let that be your guiding principle: Don’t be afraid to leave the World permanently and drastically altered in the wake of your character’s life. Make a story as large or as small as you want it to be. Destroy a city, or save it with an ambitious parks program; forge an empire, or turn the tide of imperialism back for one small group of your people; cure a scourging plague, or heal the one you love; bring peace to a nation, or just to your family. Though your family members are probably Gods themselves.

12 INTRODUCTION — and the World responds. These Demigods will succeed in becoming a God, or they will die with their failure. Everything up to this point was your prologue. Now it’s time to live your myth. HOW TO USE THIS BOOK Scion: Demigod continues down the path set by Scion: Origin and Scion: Hero, with players embodying mythic characters in the process of forging their Legends. This game requires Scion: Origin and Scion: Hero and builds on the Storypath system by adding rules for expansive mythic Deeds and supernatural miracles. Scion: Demigod’s primary purpose is to expand Scion Second Edition’s power level and chart the next level of power tiers for the Scions of the Gods. Demigod’s design focuses on the theme of “Live the Myth;” to that end, the book’s main focus is on the Heroic cycle, giving Storyguides and players the tools to play through the tropes and story mechanisms of classic mythology (and whether to avert, subvert, or play straight those same tropes). The Demigod story arc is about forging one’s Legend, but this is not a haphazard thing. Rather, players will take their characters through a tightly designed yet flexible story arc that ends in apotheosis or death — either way, the character will no longer be mortal after this book. Your characters don’t have to follow every Milestone with their Deeds — but they cannot run from their destiny once they’ve chosen to embrace it. The time needed to complete the story arc is completely up to the players and Storyguide, however — the characters might feel rushed, but the players shouldn’t be. Demigods can live for long decades, but they are not passive years, and their stories end one way. Even Herakles had many adventures after completing the Twelve Labors — and then he died. THE PANTHEONS The five pantheons featured in Demigod are fully available to use at the Origin and Hero levels for parentage and association — Storyguides should feel free to incorporate them into their World and character generation regardless of level, and future books will assume they exist. Many of them are, frankly, a little more down-on-their-luck than the pantheons of Hero. They are: • Annuna: The Mesopotamian Gods, proud standard-bearers of an authoritarian outlook that is startlingly effective yet dangerously out of touch with the modern World; • Apu: The Incan Gods, golden and brimming with supernatural authority, calmly and methodically working to restore their place and the place of their people within the World; • Atua: The Polynesian Gods, deeply in tune with the natural ebbs and flows of the World, threatened by colonization and climate change; • Bogovi: The Slavic Gods, in the winter of their power, waiting for their spring to return; • Tengri: The Mongolian Gods, the spirits of the steppes and the mountains, cosmopolitan but threatened by vast changes in the World. WHAT THIS BOOK CONTAINS • Chapter One: Storyguiding Apotheosis describes the Milestones every Demigod must undertake to achieve Apotheosis, the act of becoming a God. • Chapter Two: Pantheons details the five pantheons in this book, suitable for any level of play. • Chapter Three: Character Creation details new and improved Birthrights and character options at the Demigod tier of play. • Chapter Four: Chasing Divinity introduces new rules and expanded powers, including Dominion Boons, to represent a Demigod’s powerful association with a Purview. • Chapter Five: Underworlds describes the various Underworlds of the pantheons, physical locations that a Scion may venture to. • Chapter Six: Antagonists features a number of new antagonist rules and entities who can challenge a Demigod. • Appendix: The Keepers describes The Keepers of the World, a group of cross-pantheon Scions who aim to become a new pantheon, to the detriment of every other God in the World. MEDIA We particularly recommend the following as sources of inspiration for the content and tone of your Scion: Demigod stories. Percy Jackson & The Olympians, by Rick Riordan Riordan’s series (and every book in that universe) has demigods coming into their power and dealing with the various myths and personalities of their parents. The treatment of Greek and Roman deities is a great example of switching mantles, and the physiological effects of being a Demigod match quite well. City of Mists, by Son of Oak Publishing City of Mists is a role-playing game that posits a modern world where fairy-tale and mythological personas are claimed by various entities. The book has a lavish noir style and intriguing gameplay, and while the power level is a

How to Use This Book 13 little lower than Demigod, the book posits an interesting choice between mortality and immortality. Immortals, directed by Tarsem Singh Featuring a surprisingly talented cast, the hardcore action film’s visuals done in Renaissance style mostly hold up. Immortals features visuals of the Titanomachy and Demigods doing battle, Gods interacting with mortals in a variety of different guises, and an epilogue that would fit well with tales of a Demigod’s Deeds. Clash of the Titans, directed by Desmond Davis One of the original great epic movies, this movie features some of creature animator Ray Harryhausen’s best works. More important than the visuals (some of which have aged badly) is the story of the Gods influencing the lives of mortals, and how Scions might want to throw off the yoke of their forebears’ Fate in order to make their own.

The Demigod's Journey 15 “All the world will be your enemy, Prince with a Thousand Enemies, and whenever they catch you, they will kill you. But first they must catch you, digger, listener, runner, prince with the swift warning. Be cunning and full of tricks and your people shall never be destroyed.” — Richard Adams, Watership Down This is a secret of the World: Almost every God, even the ones who have existed since the creation of all things, was once a mortal Scion. The deity who receives sacrifices in modern temples may only have shed their mortality last Tuesday, but because Fate reweaves history and memory in response to Deeds, he has never been anything or anyone else, unless Apotheosis itself is a part of his Legend. The First Visitation marks the end of an Origin and the start of a Hero and is by all accounts a transcendental and transfiguring affair. The knowledge of a Scion’s parentage races through them, transforming blood and bone and soul in its wake. It’s a rush to which all other addictions or joys pale in comparison, and the Scion is forever transformed after. In moments of passion or injury, they bleed golden ichor instead of red blood. They wield gifts born of myth. But they never forget the rush. The Second Visitation is a much quieter affair, a declaration made by the Scion to Fate. The Scion can feel that same rush of divinity again, but only for a fleeting moment. What a gambler calls chasing it, the feeling of victory, a Scion calls the ascent to Apotheosis. A Demigod who decides to pursue Apotheosis has some difficult choices to make. She can follow her own path by overcoming a series of archetypal challenges that sharpen her identity to the point that Fate cannot deny her divinity. The act of becoming a Demigod is a Scion’s declaration to Fate itself that they will become a God or die trying. Perhaps one in a thousand succeeds, but all leave their mark upon the World. THE DEMIGOD’S JOURNEY The Deeds of a Demigod come together to create a Mantle (see Hero, p. 43). A Demigod can also take up the incomplete Mantle of another Demigod who tried to rise to the ranks of the Gods but failed, and by playing out the same story up to and beyond that point of failure, turn tragedy into victory. Or she can walk in the footsteps of another God (living or dead) so perfectly, so completely, that Fate itself acknowledges that she is that God. THE APOTHEOSIS ROADMAP Progress from Demigod to God involves five stages that all Scions progress through, although not necessarily in the same order. Each stage is associated with a Divine Deed, a defining task or set of tasks that the Scion must complete successfully to advance. These Deeds act as the Milestones of Apotheosis, and a Scion cannot attempt the next Milestone in the sequence until he has increased his Legend. The choice to pursue Apotheosis becomes available at Legend 4, which means that it reaches its conclusion (if successful) at Legend 9. Until a Scion completes the first Apotheosis Milestone, she remains a Hero with regard to all rules that distinguish between Hero- and Demigodtier characters. The Milestones are: • The Second Call, in which the Demigod reenacts an early challenge of his post-Visitation life in a new (usually more dangerous) way or becomes drawn into one of the early myths of the God he wants to emulate. The lesson of this stage is to let him reflect on his progress so far and to announce to Fate that he is ready to pursue Apotheosis. This is always the first step and culminates in the act of gaining Legend 5, a Deed undertaken while the Scion is still a Hero. • The Parting, in which the Demigod discovers the extra burdens that Fatebinding places on Gods and glimpses similar divine restrictions on behavior in the mortal realm. Along the way, he develops a powerful Fatebond with a mortal or lesser mythic being, one that lasts beyond even death. Then, inevitably, that bond will be severed. The lesson of the Parting is that all mortal connections are, compared to the eternity of the Gods, fleeting ones. • The Threshold, in which the Demigod explores her connection to her Callings to solidify her identification with them. For most Scions, it’s one of the less dangerous stages, with an emphasis on playfulness, fluid identities, and change instead of the harsher lessons of responsibility. For others, it’s a period of intense questioning that can lead to a total reinvention of the self. The lesson of this stage is to teach the Scion who she is on an archetypal level. • The Descent, in which the Demigod starts to shed his strongest associations with the mortal World. This can mean a literal journey to an Underworld, but it can also be a period of isolation, or the loss of a loved one through death or betrayal. Whatever form it takes, its lesson is that a God must make sacrifices as well as accept them. • The Theophany, in which the Demigod gathers all his resources and talents to face one myth-defining challenge. If he succeeds, he achieves Apotheosis and becomes a God. If he fails, he dies,

16 CHAPTER ONE: STORYGUIDING APOTHEOSIS and his unfinished Mantle goes free until some other Demigod takes it up to try again. This stage isn’t a lesson; it’s the final exam. No matter what route a character takes through the other stages, the Theophany is always last. If the Scion succeeds in this last stage, they reach a Legend score of 9 and a form of immortality. PLANNING THE JOURNEY The decision about the form that a stage of the mythic journey takes should, unless the player specifically asks otherwise, be a collaborative one. The player agrees that his Scion is going to attempt to progress through the stage, uses the guidelines in this chapter to outline the challenge or challenges to overcome, and works with the Storyguide and other players to fill in the details. For groups that have been playing together from the start of a Scion’s story, some elements will present themselves organically: old enemies return until they’re finally defeated, familiar Storyguide characters take on increasingly significant roles, and common themes repeat themselves until it becomes clear that they’re driving forces in the entire myth. Ideally, every part of the character’s journey becomes something that can be looked back on as meaningful once the whole story has played out. Of course, playing a game doesn’t work the same way as authoring a novel. No one has control over every part of it. There will always be unresolved storylines and plot tangents that don’t contribute anything to the overall arc. There will be times when carefully crafted plans fall apart because of a series of bad dice rolls. But unless the narrative has moved so far away from a player’s intentions that the game has stopped being enjoyable for her, there’s one vital thing to keep in mind: Nearly every historical myth that hasn’t been rewritten by later generations has the same issues. There are always episodes that read as if someone dropped them into the story without paying any attention to what was going on around them. Having the occasional splintered edge makes a character’s narrative more authentic to real-world mythologies, not less so. For this reason, there’s no need to try to plan stages before a character begins them. Once she has completed one, the player and Storyguide can take time to talk about where to go next. If the gaming group has several players whose characters are progressing along their own paths, they’re unlikely to reach their goals at exactly the same time, so the Storyguide probably won’t have to worry about handling requests from multiple players at once. It’s worth spending time to make sure that everyone is comfortable with the direction they’re going, so players should be willing to be patient. The route that a character takes to Apotheosis can describe the genre that his player wants him to play out. The basic structure given above, for example, models a coming of age story typical of heroic narratives: awareness of the larger adult World (Second Call); the putting away of the trappings of childhood (Parting); a period of self-discovery and experimentation with identity (Threshold); the sense of loss at being cut off from the security of familiar things (Descent); and the entry into mature life (Theophany). Put in a different order, however, it lends itself to vastly different stories. • Comic: The comic arc starts at a low point, then rises steadily. By putting the Descent stage at the beginning, the player is saying that she wants her character to suffer great loss at the outset, then show his ability to triumph over them. • Tragic: Starting with the heroic victory of the successfully completing the Second Call, reworking the Threshold to be about self-doubt instead of playfulness, then following with the Parting and Descent sets the Demigod on a trajectory in which things continue to get worse until they end. • Redemption: A significant mistake with regard to the Fatebound Storyguide Character (SGC) in the Parting stage can drive the Demigod to spend the rest of his journey to Apotheosis trying to make amends. If the Parting involves him betraying or causing the death of the SGC, all the better. • Metamorphosis: The Threshold represents an opportunity for the Demigod to question who she wants to be and gives her the freedom to explore her choices. At the beginning of the journey, it represents a kind of undifferentiated being that she will gradually focus into a new identity as she advances. Divine patrons, creators, and parents know the instant their Scion completes the first Milestone, regardless of success or failure. How they react to the news depends on their personalities, the outcome of the Milestone, and whether they believe she’s going to try to replace them. Indra, for example, is famously touchy about the existence of other Indras who might take his throne. The Loas as a group, on the other hand, are completely fine with the idea of a new Ogou or Ezili arising and welcome the latest one into the Pantheon alongside the rest. Whatever the parent’s reaction, it will almost certainly be accompanied by a visit to check in on their offspring. Again, depending on the personality, the tone of the visit can range from concern to encouragement to warning. When the visit occurs, the Demigod’s player has the option to exchange their current Creature, Follower, Guide, and/or Relic Birthrights for new ones, keeping the total number of dots allocated to them the same. This represents the character’s divine parent “re-arming” him for the struggles ahead now that he’s had a taste of what he’ll have to face.

Taking on a Mantle 17 TAKING ON A MANTLE A Demigod who wants to adopt the Mantle of an existing God is choosing a dangerous path to Apotheosis. Even the safest route can mean a loss of his personality as it becomes one aspect of a vaster being, while trying to become the dominant form of that God risks complete destruction. Still, the thought of replacing a God, gaining her power and authority, being a better version of her is tempting to many Scions. Some of them, coaxed along by Fate, may not even realize it’s the direction they are heading until they reach the final steps. At that point, their only choices are to succeed or die forever. UNDERSTANDING MANTLES IN SCION Mantles are a metaphysical reflection of a legendary being’s accumulated Deeds, Fatebindings, and identity. Because they do not have any direct equivalent in real-world mythologies or religions, it’s up to the Storyguide to decide how aware Demigods and Gods are of how they work. Questions for the Storyguide to answer include: • Do Gods see Mantles as aspects of a single being or as different, yet closely related, entities? • Are Gods consciously aware of ways to weaken and steal Mantles, or do they only know that forcing another God to go against her Fate-ordained role makes her more vulnerable to harm? • Do Gods know the relationship between attempting to achieve Apotheosis and the creation of a Mantle, or do they only see Demigods following the course that Fate sets out for them? The answers to these questions differ from pantheon to pantheon. Some may not think about them at all, while for others they are secrets known only to a few Gods, and for still others they are common knowledge (but perhaps believed only to apply to that pantheon). For the Storyguide, it’s important at least to consider answers so that if his players’ characters go looking for advice on how to usurp a Mantle, he can decide whether there’s any God who can provide an answer. The search for that advice can become an adventure all its own as a Demigod tries to win an audience with the wisest member of the pantheon (and perhaps to decipher whatever cryptic answer she offers). USURPATION, SHARING, AND SURRENDER There are three ways to take on an existing Mantle, two of which come with significant risks and one still effectively removes a Scion from the game, even if successful. A player needn’t decide which approach to take until she reaches the last Divine Deed of Apotheosis, the Theophany. At any point before then, she can also change course completely and try to create a Mantle of her own, but the further she progresses toward Apotheosis, the more difficult it becomes to break free of the current of Fate sweeping her to her end. I DON’T WANT TO GO Not every Deed a Demigod undertakes directly relates to the Milestones, but once a Scion answers the Second Call, opportunities to undertake the other Milestones will inevitably arise until the Scion sheds their mortality one way or another. They have decreed their intentions to Fate and the World, and they will be answered whether they regret their intentions or not. Nobody forces them onto this path. A character is free to remain a Hero for their entire life, or never to accept the Visitation at all and stay at the level of Origin. There’s no fixed rules that force your character to undergo one Milestone after another, other than the general structure of them. If a character is avoiding their destiny once they’ve declared it, Fate will punish them by endangering Fatebound characters, destroying aspects of their mortal life, or even physically harming the Scion when the ichor increasing within them causes their blood to turn toxic. Once they make the choice to become a Demigod, the rest of their life is short and probably painful. If a player regrets their decision, the Storyguide has a little more trouble on their hands. Hopefully, before making the move to Demigod, the Storyguide has discussed the ramifications of a character’s choice with the players, but people are bad at gauging their own reactions to things, and regret is a fickle thing. One way to handle this is to undertake some element of troupe play, allowing the player to play a similar but different character Fatebound to another player character while their old character goes on to other storied-but-less-stressful adventures. Another is engaging in one of the alternate story arcs, allowing a gentler rise to divinity for the character than is standard. Remember that the point of playing Scion, or any other roleplaying game, is to have fun, explore your emotions, and kick some titanspawn ass. No amount of fidelity to rules-as-written for a fictional character’s story arc is worth distress and harm to a non-fictional living person.

18 CHAPTER ONE: STORYGUIDING APOTHEOSIS Regardless of which of the three approaches a Demigod takes to adopt a Mantle, one constant element is that he must re-enact the myths of the God along the way. The descriptions of each Milestone in the Apotheosis section (pp. 15-16) include advice for players and Storyguides on how to do this. Where they differ is in the outcome. USURPATION The most violent way to adopt a Mantle is to separate it from its current holder. By walking in the footsteps of a God, a Demigod gradually puts herself in a position to convince Fate itself that she is worthy of taking on that God’s role, but that’s the easy part of the process. She must also work to dislodge the God’s Mantle by weakening his ties to it, then — directly or indirectly — kill the God. Demigods already feel greater effects if they ignore their Fatebindings than Heroes do. If Gods go against their Fateordained roles, they undermine the myths that shape their entire identities, which makes them vulnerable to having their Mantle stolen. A Demigod who wants to take advantage of this weakness must put the God into a position where she has no choice but to act against her own purpose. The first way to do this is by engineering a situation that provokes a God into suffering a Failure Deed (Hero, p. 191) for one or more Callings, such as by making a Guardian betray the one he’s sworn to protect or making a Judge abandon her beliefs. If the Demigod can do this, the effects are immediate: The God loses access to the corresponding Knacks and Titles for the rest of the episode. If he manages to orchestrate events to cause the God to lose all three of her Callings in the same episode, the God can no longer add Scale to her actions when the time comes to fight for her Mantle. The second way is by attacking the God’s Fatebindings and Birthrights. It is up to the Storyguide to determine exactly what these are, but they include significant Birthrights, close relationships, sacred places, or anything else that features strongly enough in the God’s myths to be a defining part of them. For every connection that the Demigod destroys, whether by literally destroying it, stealing it, or subverting it so that it’s no longer associated with GODS AS ANTAGONISTS: THE QUICK VERSION For the purposes of Demigod, a Storyguide can treat a God as an Antagonist with the Avatar archetype who rolls all dice against target number 7, can perform Marvels associated with any of his Purviews, and can apply Scale 5 (or 6 for the most powerful members of a pantheon) to any actions appropriate to his Callings or Purviews. Performing Marvels or adding Scale costs one Tension. The Storyguide can add other Flairs and Qualities as she sees fit.

Taking on a Mantle 19 its original meaning, the God loses access to one Purview for the rest of the episode. Ambitious Scions should keep in mind that some of these Fatebindings involve beings who are powerful in and of themselves: yes, it’s possible to weaken Loki by killing their children, but is it worth trying to take on Jörmungandr, Fenrir, and Hel herself for that advantage? Once the Demigod has weakened the God through either or both means, all that remains is for the God to die in the Demigod’s presence. She doesn’t have to be the one to perform the actual killing, but if she is not physically there, the weakened Mantle will simply be cast adrift and attach itself to someone else at a later time. If the God escapes while still alive, he will return fully restored at the beginning of the next session. The challenger will have gained nothing but the impending anger of an entire pantheon, usually followed by swift destruction and his own incomplete Mantle being set free for another to claim in the future. While it’s the Storyguide’s job to make the fight between the Demigod and the God genuinely challenging, she is also encouraged to keep it reasonably fair (differences in power aside). No player wants his struggle through Apotheosis to end with Erlang putting an arrow through his heart from the other side of the planet or Ītzpāpālōtl transporting him into the night sky to be devoured by Tzitzimime while keeping a safe distance herself. Assuming that the Scion hasn’t already drawn the God out to fight by attacking his Fatebindings and Birthrights, she can call him into her general area by performing a major sacrifice and issuing a challenge; he will respond within the same scene. Some Gods, of course, will not want to fight — doing so would go against their nature. While usurping Mantles is more commonly done by Demigods who thrive on war and conflict, it’s still possible to take one without violence. In that case, the Demigod must strip the God of all three Callings in either of the two ways described in the previous section, within a single episode (2-3 game sessions), at which point she can remove the Mantle and claim it herself. The God, meanwhile, fights back by doing the exact same thing, maneuvering the Demigod into a position where she suffers a Failure Deed for her own Callings and working to destroy or subvert her Birthrights however possible. This approach may spill less blood, but it can be just as brutal on an emotional and psychological level as both sides see parts of themselves torn away. A wounded God who feels like the Demigod is a legitimate threat will likely offer to share his Mantle instead of risking losing everything. However the battle plays out, if the Demigod is victorious, she takes on the God’s Mantle and becomes the dominant persona of that God. When mortals tell stories about the battle, the stories won’t reflect what actually happened; they might not even notice immediately, although they may become aware of some sort of shift in personality afterward. What they will see instead — if they see anything — is that some enemy rose up to challenge one of the Gods, and when the dust settled, the God was the one still standing. As for the defeated God, loss of the Mantle does not necessarily mean that he is gone forever. The Nemetondevos escaped complete destruction, even though it’s taken an exceptionally long time for them to patch together the scraps of their Mantles through several lifetimes as Scions. A God who already possesses multiple Mantles can flee into one of her other ones when the primary one is taken, losing her standing in the pantheon and having to accept a subservient role to the new Mantle-holder. Or the God could immediately be reborn as his own pre-Visitation Scion, possessing only a dim memory of who he once was, ready to begin the climb to Apotheosis all over again to take back his Mantle. This is, in fact, a prime cause of many Incarnate Scions. SHARING Some Demigods (and some players) don’t want to take a Mantle by force. If her relationship with her divine parent isn’t antagonistic, why would she even consider it? Even if it is, the prospect of standing face to face against such formidable powers is enough to make many Demigods look for a more diplomatic solution. That’s where the choice to share Mantles comes in. A God can voluntarily give one of his Mantles to a Demigod who completes the Theophany Milestone of Apotheosis. In that case, the Deed associated with the Milestone must be one that re-creates a myth that the God considers a core part of his identity. It’s up to the player and Storyguide to agree which myth that is and what steps are necessary to repeat it, but it should be one that highlights the defining qualities of the God in question. (Think of it as the story that would be included in a real-world dictionary of mythology; if a writer only has one or two paragraphs to describe a God, then this myth is the one that would be included.) If she carries out the task successfully, she earns a shared Mantle. Areius, Scion of Zeus but favored of Ares, becomes Zeus Areius. Why would a God agree to this? In some cases, it’s a strategic move to avoid being overthrown and to keep an eye on potential future challengers. Phobos and Deimos, sons of Ares, hold two of their father’s lesser Mantles for now, but both still intend to reach for the name of Ares when the time is right. He knows the day will come when they’re no longer content with their stations, but sharing power allows him to focus on what he considers more immediate problems. Thor, on the other hand, chose to name the Scions who became Magni, Mođi, and Thruđr as his children after they reached similar heights of power, but not out of fear for his position. He knows death will come for him, and so has been preparing all three of them to take his place. Only one will become Thor, but if he’s learned one thing from Odin over the centuries, it’s that it’s always good to have a contingency plan.

20 CHAPTER ONE: STORYGUIDING APOTHEOSIS Then there’s Brigid and her sisters, who have had Mantles as God of healing, poetry, and smithcraft for over 1,000 years, all of whom are simply known as “Brigid” and none of whom may have originally been the daughter of the Dagda who stood with the Tuatha Dé Danann against the Fomorians long before that. A Demigod who wants to share power with her will become yet another Brigid, even though mortals will insist that there are only three of them at any given time. Sharing a Mantle has the advantage of offering some flexibility to the Demigod who acquires it. He can choose to keep either one Calling or two Purviews that don’t match the God’s and that now represent the focus of his own role. When he later produces his own Scions, they can choose to take on those Callings and Purviews instead of the ones belonging to the dominant Mantle holder. Cults that arise to worship the God in the aspect of the shared Mantle may even become more popular than the original one if he offers something to them that the other God does not. If, for example, he keeps access to Fertility or Health Purviews, he will draw worshipers in need of those blessings. With enough time and patience, his cult may eclipse that of the original. The main disadvantage of sharing a Mantle is that whatever has been given can be taken back. If a God decides to withdraw her Mantle from the one she’s given it to, she takes his identity and history of Deeds with it, absorbing them all into herself. The World is full of temple inscriptions commemorating regional variations on Gods who have been otherwise forgotten, Gods whose myths are no longer distinct from the one whose Mantle they once shared. If anyone asks a local devotee who Apollo Epicurius is, he might remember that Apollo once did something there, but it was a long time ago and no one remembers exactly what it was. SURRENDER Few Demigods, having gone through the challenges on the way to Apotheosis, opt for the third way to achieve it. It involves coming face to face with the God whose myths she has emulated and, instead of fighting to take a Mantle or bargaining to share it, she acknowledges that she is nothing more than one aspect of the God’s greater identity and voluntarily allows herself to be absorbed into that identity. All the Deeds she has performed until then become part of the God’s Mantle. When she is remembered, it is as a manifestation of the God, not an individual Hero or Demigod. It’s rare, but it has happened, like with Enyalius and Ares. So long as he has echoed the God’s myth throughout his Apotheosis, there is no chance that choosing surrender as the outcome will fail. It does, however, require that the Demigod reach the Theophany with the same Callings as the God she is emulating and that she does not possess any Purviews that the God does not. If either of these is not the case, he can only try to usurp or share a Mantle. On a character level, choosing this option represents an epiphany on the Demigod’s part about a fundamental unity of the divine and an acceptance of his place in that unity. As such, it’s usually applicable to pantheons that believe that there is a single force behind all the aspects of divinity — notably the Devá, Netjer, and Teōtl, although the mystical traditions in others can lead a Demigod to the same conclusion. If the Demigod is the sort of character who repeats the myths of her divine parent as a form of deliberate devotion, surrender during the Theophany is a natural outcome. For a player, making surrender the outcome of Apotheosis is a way to retire a character whom he feels has reached the end of her story. It’s a way of avoiding the conflicts that come with the Theophany, a way of being assured of success, but at the cost of never playing that character again. On the positive side, any of her Birthrights can become associated with the God, so that another Scion of the same God can take them up in the future and other players in the game will know the reason why. IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF THE GODS A Demigod who intends to take the Mantle of another God by re-enacting that God’s myth follows the journey to Apotheosis in the same way as one who’s building a myth of their own. At each stage, they face the same kind of Milestones, with the difference being that it’s up to the player and Storyguide to find existing myths to represent the thematic challenges associated with those Milestones. That can be a challenge in and of itself, depending on how much material is readily available, so here’s some advice. Don’t Worry About Story Order: Readers can interpret stories as parts of a human being’s progress from childhood to maturity, with the Milestones as significant rites of passage along the way. They needn’t be, especially given how hard it can be to work out what some Gods were doing in different phases of their lives. What did Thor do as a child? Did Huitzilopochtli have an awkward teen phase? No one knows, either because those aspects of their myths weren’t considered important enough to record anywhere, or because the people recording them didn’t think of their Gods growing up the way that mortals do. In the sections covering the stages, there are suggestions on how to interpret them that don’t involve treating them as parts of the lifecycle. There Doesn’t Have to Be Homework: If a player doesn’t have access to any decided research mechanisms, if he’s looked but can’t find enough material, if he doesn’t have time, or just doesn’t feel like turning a roleplaying game into a research project, that’s okay. The descriptions of Gods and pantheons in Scion already have parts that the writers made up to imagine how those things would appear in the World; a few more aren’t going to break anything. Instead of relying on outside sources, the player and Storyguide can have a conversation about what one of those missing myths might look like in its original cultural

In the footsteps of the gods 21 context, based on what they know already. In other words, tell a new myth that feels like it would fit in with the existing ones and agree that it is (and has always been) part of the original God’s story. … But There Can Be: For some pantheons, there are extensive and readily available bodies of mythological stories for players to draw on as inspiration. For others, it can be difficult to track down more than a few paragraphs, if that. All that players need to do is to find five myths that hit the major themes of the stages. The writers of Scion aren’t going to be disappointed if someone gets that information from online encyclopedias, but if a player has access to libraries, research databases, academics, or members of the cultures whose religious figures are depicted in the game, she should by all means take advantage of those resources. Watch Your Step: There are parts of all historical mythologies that are alien to modern readers. Some of the Gods act in ways that are abusive to others. Some of them react with extreme violence to incidents that most people would shrug off as mild annoyances. Following in the footsteps of the Gods doesn’t mean that players or Storyguides must revisit these same myths in the same ways, especially if they have the potential to make anyone involved uncomfortable. If there’s a choice to make between fidelity to the original sources and the enjoyment of everyone at the table, enjoyment always comes first. At the same time, when dealing with figures from religious traditions with adherents in the real world, the advice from Hero to treat their stories with respect still applies. While the portrayal of mythological characters can appear inconsistent from an outsider’s point of view, especially if they are grounded in an unfamiliar culture, that doesn’t mean that insiders would see them the same way. They have had access to the same stories for a long time and have certainly both noticed and addressed the issues that outsiders spot. Start with the insider’s perspective (or, even better, several insiders’ perspectives) to understand what these sacred stories mean. FALLEN HEROES Gilgamesh was two-thirds divine, ruled as a king, fought monsters, and went on a quest to achieve immortality. He did everything a Demigod must to become a God, but still failed in the end, and now his unfinished Mantle waits for others to complete his Apotheosis. He’s far from the only Hero or Demigod to end their own myth by dying, but he’s the best example of a Scion who nearly reached the end of their journey but never finished. Fortunately, it’s possible for another Demigod to try to fix the mistakes of the past. If a player wants her character to claim the incomplete Mantle of a Demigod, she and the Storyguide must agree that the figure in question is someone whose Deeds were sufficient to create one in the first place. The heroes of fairy and folk tales remembered for just one story probably never reached the point of developing a Mantle, no matter how otherworldly their adventures. “Jack and the Beanstalk” might inspire a giant-slaying Demigod, but Jack was never a Demigod himself. King Arthur as the strictly British warlord who fought monsters and gathered a court of Heroes

22 CHAPTER ONE: STORYGUIDING APOTHEOSIS progressed further, while the Arthur crowned emperor of Rome in Le Morte d’Arthur died much closer to Apotheosis. Coming to an agreement on how close the previous Mantle holder came to achieving Apotheosis requires the player to do the same kind of research suggested for someone following the path of a God: Find resources and map significant points in the Demigod’s life onto the five stages. If he can find two or three points of comparison (excluding the Theophany), it’s enough. The rest remain undetermined and play out as new additions to the mythic corpus. Following the path of a failed Demigod is the same as following that of a God, up to a point. The Scion echoes the Demigod’s myth through as many stages of Apotheosis as she originally managed to complete, but when he reaches the challenge that the original failed, it’s up to him to succeed. For a Demigod like Gilgamesh, that point would come very close to the end, since his voyage to the edge of the World to seek out Utnapishtim is essentially a version of the Descent stage, and there would only be one final Deed to complete. Unless the Milestone that caused the original Demigod to fail is the Theophany, however, succeeding doesn’t mean reaching Apotheosis. Instead, it means that she is now forging a myth of her own, just like a Scion who tries to form their own Mantle from the beginning. She continues through the remaining stages, but now without any guidance or restriction from the past. Because her Mantle comprised her accumulated Deeds, the coming challenges are still shaped by her past actions and therefore by the original Demigod’s. TRUE CALLINGS A Scion’s three Callings represent aspects of their identity at an archetypal level, and on the journey to Godhood, they become the framework upon which Demigods build their myths. While it can be tempting for a Demigod to neglect their Callings in favor of the more spectacular power offered by their Purviews, taking that route leads to becoming a Titan, not a God. Embodying the Callings is what keeps a would-be God rooted in the World and connected to mortals. A major part of the myth-making journey of Apotheosis involves honing the Scion’s identity with respect to their Callings. There is room along the way for them to be questioned and changed, but after a certain point, they’re fixed in place forever. A Scion who plans to become a new Thor must, eventually, end up as a Guardian, Leader, and Warrior. He may stress different aspects in ways that another Thor does not, but that combination becomes a lasting part of who he is as a God. Practically speaking, to embody the Callings through myths and Deeds means two things. First, it means living out stories that reveal new ideas of what it means to be attached to those Callings: A Lover’s myths focus on themes of devotion, passion, and human relationships of all kinds, while a Warrior’s myths are about struggle, conflict, and conquest. A Scion who is both sees her different sides play against each other, as if Fate were testing to see which one is more important to her. Second, for three of the stages of the journey — the Second Call, Parting, and Descent — the player must choose one of his character’s three Callings to be the focus, with a different focus for each stage. For the Second Call, the choice decides which of the character’s titles the outcome will affect. For the Parting, it determines the Fatebinding role of the SGC involved. For the Descent, it decides the goal that the Demigod intends to carry out. IN-CHARACTER RESEARCH A Scion deliberately trying to emulate the myths of a God during his Apotheosis needs better resources than a quick internet search. Details matter, and the most vital details typically don’t make it into webpages of “Ten Awesome Stories About the Manitou.” The process for gathering this information is the same as for a Procedural scene (Origin, p. 73-75), including the option to apply Stunts to rolls. Use Academics for the roll if the character is using scholarly sources, historical accounts, or secondary analyses of texts. Use Occult to interpret inspired material (e.g., something revealed in a dream or announced by a prophet of the God in question) or esoteric teachings. Use Culture to represent learning about myths by participating in rituals or speaking with religious specialists. The Storyguide should apply Complications if the character does not have direct access to a substantial and reputable source for any of these, with the effect of the Complication being that the research will take much more time to accomplish. VARIANT MANTLES If taking on the same three Callings as an existing God feels too restrictive, remember that Gods can have many Mantles. If there’s an existing mythological version of a God that seems like it would have a different Calling than one of the usual three, a player can treat it as a Mantle and choose to take it instead.

In the footsteps of the gods 23 It’s worthwhile to review the general description of the Callings in Hero, p. 192-95, especially the parts about Failure and Adoption Deeds; those offer ready-made points at which to test a character’s adherence to the concepts of their Callings. To further help players and Storyguides craft plots around a character’s Callings, here are some more questions and ideas to consider for each of them: • Creator: A Creator answers challenges by adding new elements to the environment rather than accepting the World as it exists. When people are hungry, he creates a new source of food. When they have no home, he makes one for them. The primary question for a Creator to answer over the course of her journey is what can I make that no one has ever made before? That question, in turn, can lead to others. What relationship does a Creator have to her creation? If it’s something put into the hands of mortals, is she obliged to see them use it well? If it’s a new species, are they her children, her pets, her playthings, or something else? If it’s a place, does she treat it as sacred to her or is it the same as any other part of the World? • Guardian: To be a Guardian is to decide that some parts of the World must be kept safe from whatever would harm them. Because it’s a choice what to defend, it’s difficult to imagine a Guardian who is completely indifferent to the thing or people under his protection, so the question to answer is: What makes my chosen charge worth fighting for? Why these people and not others? Why this place and not that one? Why this one ideal or value? In addition, inherent in the role is the idea that there is some constant threat to the charge’s existence. What is it? Is it something that can ever truly be beaten, and if not, what sacrifices are worth making to hold it back? • Healer: The role of the Healer is, like the Guardian, primarily reactive. In this case, the threat is harm, sickness, and death; the ones under her protection can include every living thing in the World. Facing obstacles through the eyes of this Calling means looking at a situation in which people are fundamentally in pain and finding a way to ease their suffering. The Healer’s question is: What ails the World and how can I heal it? Healers face issues of theodicy MEANINGFUL CREATIONS The Immortal Creator Knack, Molded from Clay (p. 149), allows a Demigod to create a new being or species with minimal effort, but it’s not enough just to make one in order to become a God. The creature has to have a meaningful place in the World: a relationship to its environment or culture, an allegorical significance that makes it emblematic of the Creator’s nature, or a part to play in the Deeds of an important Hero. Creating a flock of venomous sheep is amusing, but ultimately meaningless. Creating the Minotaur, a race of talking monkeys with their own society, or a tree whose apples grant immortality are examples of the degree of importance that a Creator should strive for.

24 CHAPTER ONE: STORYGUIDING APOTHEOSIS more than most other Callings: With power over life and death, why haven’t they rid the World of all diseases yet? Why isn’t everyone immortal? Why did they bring one person back from death but leave millions of others in their graves? How do they answer their devotees who demand answers to those questions? • Hunter: Every Hunter needs prey and builds his myth either by embracing the thrill of chasing one thing after another forever or by choosing one ultimate target and taking it down. Unlike a Warrior, he defines himself by the pursuit, not the final confrontation. What are you chasing? Is it something that can ever even be captured, and if not, does that matter? Why is the hunt so important to him? What relationship does he have with his prey? Is it something to be respected (even though it must eventually die) or is it more like an enemy? • Judge: Judges, Leaders, and Sages are figures most suited to being immortalized as the founders of religious and cultural traditions but approach the role in different ways. Judges and Leaders represent authority, but where a Leader may act as the model of a new way of living in the World, a Judge may simply enforce the rules already in place. Judges and Sages can both show mortals better ways to understand their place in the World, but it’s more likely the Sage who offers a novel solution to problems. So, the question for the Judge is a dual one: What rules are you upholding, and what gives you the authority to do that? Overcoming challenges as a Judge, unsurprisingly, means delivering and upholding judgments that last. Is the Scion a negotiator who finds a peaceful balance that others agree to, or a strict lawgiver who enforces decisions by punishing those who ignore them? Are her judgments based on human-focused ideas of justice or on a cosmic order that mortals can never completely understand? • Leader: For a Leader to lead, someone else must follow. Lone wolf Scions can never represent the Calling powerfully enough to let it carry them to Apotheosis for the simple reason that it relies on the support of others to manifest fully. At some point, a Leader must come up against an obstacle that he cannot conquer on his own, recognize that he needs others, and rally their support. Why should anyone accept your leadership? Have the Scion’s Deeds been so inspirational that others are drawn to her? How far does her authority extend? Does she claim a group of people as her own and rule over them or is the whole World hers? What will happen if her leadership ends, and what could end it? • Liminal: Fittingly, the role of a Liminal Demigod is not quite one thing, not quite another. He explores and discovers but doesn’t necessarily create anything. He defies some social conventions by being on the margins but isn’t trying to overthrow the entire system. If a Creator solves problems by adding new features to the World, a Liminal figure does so by creating pathways between parts that already exist. The question to answer is: What connections can I make that no one else has? A Liminal Demigod who is an explorer or traveler not only has to find new things but open the way for others to follow. At that point, does she guard the gate between one side and another to control what passes through, or focus on ensuring that the journey itself is safe? • Lover: Overcoming hardship through the power of love is a trope so ingrained in modern media that it’s become a cliché, but it’s still what the Lover does. What separates a divine Lover from the protagonist of an ordinary romantic novel is that his myth represents a particular form of love to a degree that makes it the model for others to follow. Why is your love story different from all the others that came before it? Does the Lover’s story teach mortals a way to love others that they didn’t acknowledge before? Does it reinforce the norms of society or subvert them? Is it something that anyone can emulate, or is it reserved for only a few? • Sage: A Sage responds to challenges by demonstrating that she knows something that others do not and can put that knowledge to use. She might be the founder of a new religious or philosophical movement that changes the course of history. She might just as easily be a keeper of secrets and prophecies who shares her wisdom only with those she considers worthy. In either case, the question for the Sage is: What do you know that makes your wisdom so important to the World? Is the character’s purpose to be a teacher, and if so, what does he teach? In a World of Gods, why should anyone listen to him instead of someone else? Does it even matter, or is he more of a conduit for knowledge and truth in general without any interest in how it’s used? • Trickster: When in doubt about how to face a difficult situation, a Trickster can always break something. There doesn’t have to be a plan to put anything else in its place afterward or to consider the consequences at all. The only thing that’s important is to remind everyone that some significant part of the larger scheme of the World can fall to pieces at any time. For a Trickster pursuing Apotheosis, this leads naturally to the question: What damage can I do that will change the most things around me? Does she cheat and lie when everyone around her is honorable to remind them how fragile social bonds can be? Does she steal something from the Gods and give it to mortals to show that no one is all-powerful? Does she spoil a gift the Gods offered over willingly to teach humans not to rely on divine help for everything? Does she find some key piece of the fabric of the World itself and destroy it just to see what happens next?

In the footsteps of the gods 25 • Warrior: For the Warrior, there is no problem that cannot be conquered through the application of enough violence. The main difference between Demigods and Gods of this Calling is not their methods, but the scope of the enemy they fight to defeat. Some of them battle Titans or world-devouring serpents while others face endless armies of lesser foes, but either way, they define themselves by their ability to win. To become a God, a Warrior must answer the question: What will be my greatest battle? What can he defeat that no one else can? What can he conquer that has never been conquered? And when that battle is over, is it important to him what happens next, or is it all for the sake of being able to say that he was the victor? FATE AND FORESHADOWING The heroes of the Mahabharata go through many short adventures on their way to the epic Kurukshetra War. Small kindnesses win them the promise of help when they most need it, and mistakes or immoral actions lead to prophecies of doom. When a Demigod begins the journey to Apotheosis, Fate doesn’t necessarily keep a scorecard of good and bad deeds, but it does remember what lessons she has learned along the way. Everything on the Demigod’s journey leads to the Theophany, the end of her mortal existence and final Milestone before Apotheosis. Each stage of the journey before that one comes with consequences that only manifest completely during Theophany. THE SECOND CALL A Hero’s first call to adventure is familiar to anyone who’s watched movies or read literature that uses the Campbellian hero’s journey as a model. Something happens in the Hero’s otherwise ordinary life to force her, even if she resists, to step into the larger World in response. Everything after that — adventure, danger, victories, setbacks — follows from that one decision. When the story concludes, the Hero may be changed, but isn’t necessarily transformed into a different kind of being. Afterward, other stories may begin, play themselves out, and end on the same relative level, over and over; or the Hero reaches a conclusion, happy or tragic, that marks his end as a force in the larger World. The Second Call is more ambitious. In a way, it’s like the sequel to an action movie: The hero of the movie is better prepared and more experienced, so her enemies and the scale of her story have to rise to an appropriate level. At the same time, a good sequel carries themes and character development from the first movie, adds depth to its setting, and introduces new twists. A Demigod’s Second Call echoes the earliest one that the Demigod faced, either in her own life or in the myth of the God she’s emulating. It’s meant as a way for her to pause, reflect on the journey so far, and think about whether she’s ready to face what lies ahead. If the player has kept track of Long-term Deeds that she’s completed through her character’s history, the Milestone involves a reimagined version of that same Deed. (If she hasn’t, but still remembers roughly what it was, that’s good enough.) It should have the same tone and the same general parameters. If using the advice to include thematic keywords for Deeds (Origin, pp. 94-95), it can remain the same if the character’s motivations have followed a steady trajectory so far, or it can be different to signal the ways that she’s changed since he became a Hero. Reimagining the Scion’s first Deed in the form of the Second Call means more than upgrading enemies from Hero-tier to Demigod-tier. It’s not a step-by-step replay of the original plot on a higher difficulty level. Instead, it uses elements of that plot to anchor it as a narrative while differing in scope and impact. In terms of scope, the Second Call involves a broader part of the mortal and immortal World. By this point, a Hero has probably already encountered rival Scions and powerful Antagonists. She may have visited hidden realms or at least traveled around the World to face mundane and supernatural threats. This is the time to push her past what she’s faced before and to bring her directly into contact with features of the World that have, before now, only been at the margins. Rhiannon Jernigan, Scion of Brigid, began her Heroic life with the long-term Deed “Find out why my ex’s new girlfriend disappeared and where she went.” It seemed ordinary enough at first — either give her ex some closure by getting a clear answer to what happened or find a way to reunite them — but soon led to encounters with hostile Aos Sí near Boston who were abducting mortals and, eventually, to a confrontation with one of their lords, Aillén the Burner, on Samhain. Nothing Rhiannon did involved going far away from the city. The battle with Aillén took place at the gates of one of the local sídhe mounds, but she and her Band only crossed into it long enough to see her enemy’s hall and free his captives. When Rhiannon’s player declares her intention for Rhiannon to pursue Apotheosis at Legend 5, she chooses Guardian as the Calling to be the focus for the Second Call Milestone. The Storyguide decides to bring Aillén back as the first primary antagonist, but also to add other Aos Sí and more involvement in their labyrinthine political schemes to match her increased powers. Furthermore, the player and Storyguide agree to have a divine adversary working to thwart Rhiannon’s progress throughout Apotheosis, but for the Storyguide to keep the identity of this enemy secret until Rhiannon uncovers it. The Storyguide settles on Bres, who was once married to Brigid and is the father of their Fomorian-allied son, Ruadán.

26 CHAPTER ONE: STORYGUIDING APOTHEOSIS The impact of the Second Call and the Demigod’s reaction to it means its potential to change the World in a lasting way. If a Hero fails to accomplish a Deed, it’s a setback that can shake his confidence in himself and that will have some consequences for those around him. If a Demigod fails, it’s both a direct attack on his growing Mantle and something that leaves its mark on the World. He loses a game of chess and Cairo disappears into a Terra Incognita for 100 years. He fails to negotiate a peace treaty and becomes responsible for a war between rakshasas and yakshas that devastates a region of India. The rules for Collateral (p. 143) and Dominion (p. 154) effects highlight how much more potential there is for altering the World when a Demigod is involved. Playing out the Second Call is the first time that those rules go into effect, which means that it’s the first time for players to understand what kinds of actions their characters can take that will have massive unintended consequences. Like many of the Aos Sí, Aillén is fixed in his ways. He lulls people to sleep with enchanting music, steals mortals that catch his eye, and sets places on fire. He’s done it for centuries and, despite being defeated occasionally, isn’t about to change his ways. When he gets his hands on a Relic called the Head of Balor, though, his capability for destruction multiplies enormously. With that, so does his appetite for capturing mortals and his influence among the other Aos Sí. It’s not Rhiannon’s ex-girlfriend who comes to her for help this time, but Áine, daughter of Manannán mac Lir. Aillén has already started to terrorize the people of the sídhe so much that they’re calling him “the second Balor,” and since Rhiannon was the one who stopped him most recently, Áine asks her to fight him again. Doing so will mean traveling to Ireland to find a way to overcome the power of the Head of Balor, learning its secrets by visiting the Fomorian’s old home on Tory Island and the battlefield of Mag Tuiredh, and contacting a reincarnation of Fionn mac Cumhal, the Hero who first bested Aillén centuries ago. If she fails, Aillén will turn the gaze of the Head on everything Rhiannon holds dear. For a Scion who plans to take on the Mantle of an existing God or failed Demigod, the general form of the Milestone is the same: succeed at a Divine Deed. In this case, the Deed is one that calls back to an early myth of the Demigod or God in question, but the other advice about choosing an appropriate scope and degree of impact applies. Even if the original one was modest in terms of its importance, it’s up to the Storyguide to raise the stakes appropriately. On the evening of the day that Hermes was born, he stole Apollo’s cattle, convinced the only witness not to tell anyone (unsuccessfully in some versions of the story), then sacrificed two of them to himself. When Apollo accused him of the theft, he denied everything, agreed to help the other God find them, and eventually offered to trade the lyre (that he’d invented that morning) for them when they found the herd. On its own, it’s a good story to illustrate Hermes’ character and his relationship with his fellow Theoi, with the explanation for the origin of the lyre as a bonus. The greatest danger that he faces is Apollo threatening to tie him up and send him to Tartarus unless he gives back what he’s stolen, and even that turns out to be fairly harmless. (Trying to tie up a God of trickery is — surprise — difficult.) If Timothy, Demigod Scion of Hermes, wants to become the new Hermes, he doesn’t necessarily have to steal Apollo’s cattle, but he has to orchestrate a similarly audacious theft from the Sun God or one of his more powerful Scions. The major elements of the plot must be the same: • Commit the theft while covering his tracks • Persuade witnesses not to tell Apollo who’s responsible (success optional) • Offer up some of what was stolen as a sacrifice to Hermes • Get caught and brought before the Theoi for judgment without admitting guilt • Help Apollo retrieve the stolen goods • Convince Apollo to trade them for something else belonging to Timothy Timothy faces the real possibility of being dragged off to Tartarus if anything goes wrong with any of phase of the plan. Even if he eventually escapes, he won’t be known as the Demigod Who Stole from Apollo. He’ll be known as the Demigod Who Got Caught Stealing from Apollo. His failure becomes part of his myth, making it more difficult for him to attempt anything similar in the future and complicating his efforts to walk in his father’s footsteps. SUCCESS The player can add an additional subject to any one of her character’s Titles (Hero, pp. 191-92) to refer to her successful passing of the Milestone. Rhiannon, for example, could change her title of “Shelter Against Fire” to “Shelter Against Fire and Devastation.” The Calling-related keywords remain the same, but the general effect of the change of title should be to expand the subjects to which they apply. Both subjects should have a clear symbolic or poetic connection. (As a rule of thumb, the second subject should be one that would fall under the same Purview as the first, so “Master of Hounds and Falcons” is fine, but “Lord of Blades and Rivers” would require some justification.) FAILURE Failing the Divine Deed doesn’t necessarily mean the end of a Demigod’s journey. Her player can choose a new Divine Deed based on the next part of her history or devise

In the footsteps of the gods 27 another one that explicitly addresses the consequences of the failure and try again. The player must, however, qualify one of his character’s existing Legendary Titles to refer to the failure. Instead of adding a second subject, he limits the application of an existing subject: Rhiannon is no longer “Shelter Against Fire,” but “Shelter Against Mortal Fire,” losing the ability to invoke the Title against supernatural sources. If, on the second attempt, the character succeeds, the player can choose either to remove the qualifier or add an additional subject to a different Title. FORESHADOWING The Storyguide chooses one Antagonist from the Second Call to be an enemy throughout the rest of the journey, either directly or indirectly. If a primary adversary who would fit that role is killed or otherwise removed as a threat, then it’s taken up by someone of equal power — a family member, lover, devotee, or ally who is out for revenge. If the plot arc of the Second Call doesn’t involve any adversarial relationships, then the new enemy is a rival whose story runs parallel to the Demigod’s but will eventually lead the two to clash. How active the fated enemy is during the rest of the Demigod’s journey is up to the Storyguide, but he will always make an appearance for the Theophany. THE PARTING The Second Call is an invitation for a Demigod to experience the World in a new way and with greater power. The Parting is the reminder that the World also expects much more in return for that power — more specifically, that Fate does. At this point in the journey, Demigods still have strong links to the lives of mortals but must prepare themselves for a future in which those lives are destined to play a much smaller part. The more potent Fatebindings of Demigods (p. 146) are the instruments that Fate uses to guide Scions to this understanding. The Milestone for the Parting stage requires a character to build up a new Fatebinding to Strength 5, then resolve it. It has to be a new Fatebinding (with a role chosen from one of the Scion’s Callings), but it can either be with an established SGC or with a new one introduced for the purpose. This bond doesn’t count against the maximum number of Fatebindings a character can have. Each time it is Invoked, the Strength increases by one automatically at the beginning of the next session. The resolution must take a form that removes the SGC from play permanently. Finally, unlike standard Fatebindings for Demigods, the Fatebinding for the Parting Milestone is restricted to SGCs only and must involve someone of Demigod-tier or lower. Unlike the Second Call, the Parting stage isn’t structured around a set of actions that the Demigod must take to succeed. Because of the way that Fatebindings work in Scion, the unfolding of their progress is more reactive: A character draws upon them to respond more effectively to some outside force, increasing their strength while relying upon the steadily growing benefits that they provide. But even though the Storyguide can let this stage play out without designing stories specifically around it, she still has work to do to make it feel properly epic. The Fatebound SGC is the Demigod’s Patroclus, his Enkidu, the character whose relationship with him will drive major decisions that he makes for the rest of his life. It must be someone with rich enough characterization to make her eventual (and inevitable) removal from play meaningful. Creating that character requires the Storyguide and player to work together, keeping these ideas in mind: The Double: The Fatebound SGC in this stage is, whether he plays a helpful or adversarial role, meant to reveal who the Demigod is as a character by filling out parts of her persona. If she is reserved and calculating, he is passionate and reckless. If she is morally ambiguous, he is honest and loyal. That doesn’t mean that he should be a mirror-image of the character in every respect, though. Instead, the player should think about what aspects of his character he wants to highlight, use those to shape the personality of the SGC, and let the rest either develop on their own or resemble the Demigod’s. In the case of a hostile bond (e.g., Nemesis or Rival), the Fatebound SGC’s personality and motivations reflect the kind of person that the Demigod could be if her life had been only slightly different. Because the SGC isn’t someone whose power matches the Demigod’s, motivations like envy, jealousy, or anger that the Gods chose her to be a Scion instead of him are all viable choices. SGCs whose relationships complicate the Demigod’s life accidentally (e.g., Apprentice or Jinx) push him to be his best by overcoming a series of increasingly difficult obstacles. Because they tend to be magnets for trouble, they represent a lingering vulnerability in the midst of superhuman feats of strength. If he wants to pass the Milestone of this stage, he must ensure that they stay alive long enough for the Fatebinding to reach its conclusion. What sort of person would he go through that much effort for? Bonds of devotion (e.g., Boon Companion or Paramour) work best with complementary personalities that nevertheless emphasize the Demigod’s best qualities. Even though the SGC is a secondary character, he should possess traits that the Demigod can admire and respect. Although her player knows that the relationship is doomed to end, the best SGC for this relationship is one that the character could genuinely believe will be a part of his life forever. Calling and Role: Each Calling in Hero has its associated Fatebinding roles. The kinds of people that Fate puts in the path of Demigods in the Parting stage are the ones who will test or strengthen her connection to the part of her identity that Calling represents. There are two main directions to take when deciding which Calling to draw on for the SGC’s role, both based on the idea that the

28 CHAPTER ONE: STORYGUIDING APOTHEOSIS resolution of the Fatebinding is going to involve a Failure Deed for that Calling. The player can choose the Calling that his character relies on most heavily, and by doing so, decide that this part of the journey is going to be a serious test of her commitment to it. If her Boon Companion dies, does it make her reconsider whether she is truly a Warrior? If she loses her Apprentice, what does that mean for the value of the wisdom she teaches as a Sage? Even though the identity crisis that follows the Milestone doesn’t necessarily mean a permanent change of Callings, selecting this option is an invitation to the Storyguide to challenge it directly. On the other hand, if the player chooses a Calling that he doesn’t feel a strong connection to for his character, this stage is an opportunity to explore different approaches that resonate better. A Demigod with the Lover Calling might realize that what she genuinely enjoys is manipulating the emotions of the people around him, so maybe she’s more of a Trickster. Maybe a Judge who metes out harsh punishments is better suited as a Warrior. In this case, it’s up to the Storyguide to set up situations in which new ways of solving problems can help the player decide whether the time has come to shed that part of his character’s identity so that she can grow into a fuller version of herself. After passing the first Milestone, Rhiannon’s player decides to focus on her character’s Healer Calling for the Parting and chooses Canary for the Fatebinding role. After some discussion, the Storyguide introduces Dr. Vincenzo Gentile, a Boston surgeon whose altruism and confidence in his own abilities mean that he’s quick to arrive on the scene in the aftermath of titanspawn attacks or that he volunteers to treat Denizens of all kinds when they are injured. Well-meaning but frankly out of his league most of the time, he and Rhiannon begin to cross paths more often. Keeping Dr. Gentile alive long enough to resolve the Fatebinding at its full strength soon becomes a full-time task. Over the next several sessions of the game, he is bitten by a venomous snake intended for Rhiannon, lured away (twice!) by a charming Aos Sí, and nearly crushed when he refuses to leave a patient during an earthquake. Rhiannon wouldn’t say that she grows to like him any more during these episodes, either. She develops a grudging respect for his dedication but will never let him forget that he keeps walking into the same traps. All the while, she and her Band carry on with other adventures and the Fatebinding increases in strength. Eventually, during a lull in the action, Rhiannon and the doctor meet again to talk about what drives him to put himself in danger so often for others. He tells her about his life in Boston, about the brother he idolized who was brought into the hospital one evening, who he couldn’t save. A moment later, there’s an explosion that stuns the Demigod. The next thing she sees is the absurd mortal standing up to put himself between her and a titanspawn. It’s the last thing Dr. Gentile ever does, the Milestone is complete, and Rhiannon loses her Healer Calling. SUCCESS A Demigod succeeds at this stage by resolving the Fatebinding at Strength 5 in a way that removes the Fatebound SGC from play for the rest of the Demigod’s career. Iolaus, nephew and charioteer of Heracles, helps him complete the Twelve Labors but has little or no involvement in his story after that point. Myths are full of lovers, companions, and enemies who simply disappear from the narrative when their chapter is over, no matter how vital they seemed to be at the time. In addition to the usual results of resolving the Fatebinding (completing a Deed, suffering a Calling Failure Deed), successfully completing the Parting replenishes the Demigod’s Legend completely. If she is already at maximum Legend, she can immediately perform a Boon or Marvel with Scale equal to half her Legend score, rounded down. FAILURE If the SGC dies before the Fatebinding is properly resolved, the character is considered to have failed this stage. He suffers a Failure Deed for the appropriate Calling. If he tries the stage again, he must select a Fatebinding from a different Calling. FORESHADOWING Even after the Fatebinding is complete, its lessons linger. When the Demigod enters the Theophany stage, she can Invoke the Fatebinding at Strength 5 one final time at a cost of one Legend. If the Fatebinding is one that normally requires the Fatebound SGC to be present, the Demigod can designate another character to play that part for that single action. This can even apply to other players’ characters, but only if they agree to it. THE THRESHOLD In traditional rites of passage, there’s often a midpoint when the participants no longer belong to the social group they did when they started but haven’t fully become the people they are meant to become. In this phase, they’re given freedom from the rules of society to explore who they are without lasting repercussions. Mythically, it’s a temporary visit to a place or state of being that exists outside the usual laws of time and space. It can be tempting to remain there indefinitely, but eventually, every Demigod must leave it behind to progress. What it means for a character to enter the Threshold depends on where the stage falls in her journey. If it’s at the start, it represents her rebirth into a World of unrestricted potential. She can do anything, be anyone, and has the

In the footsteps of the gods 29 whole of her story ahead of her to decide who she’s going to become. If it’s nearer to the end, on the other hand, it can be an identity crisis that forces a Demigod to question the choices that he’s made in his life so far and ask whether or not he can continue being the same person anymore. At the beginning of every game session after a character enters the Threshold, he can change one of his Callings to a new one without having to complete Failure or Adoption Deeds. He begins with the same number of dots in the new Calling as he had in the old one, and if his player has spent Experience to acquire extra Knacks for that Calling, that number of Knacks is available to the new Calling as well. The player does not need to specify what Knacks her character has until he uses them in play. This stage can be more of a challenge for the Storyguide than the player, especially if she’s someone who likes to tailor stories for the abilities that a character possesses. It’s a little stressful to construct an elaborate investigation plot for a Sage, only to discover that he’s a Warrior today. One way to handle situations like that is simply not to try to plan for an outcome or a definite route to that outcome. Instead, the Storyguide sets SGCs and their schemes in motion, then lets them play out naturally. If she’s especially attached to some events or encounters, then she can keep the possibility open for them to be reached through a variety of means, but only if that doesn’t give the player the impression that his own decisions along the way are inconsequential. If there’s no significant difference between getting information from a rakshasa by charming it with flattery, seeing the truth behinds its lies, or punching it until it talks, then the player’s choices feel meaningless. The consequences of the character’s approach should be appropriate in each case. Another way to tell Threshold stories is to make them more personal. Instead of focusing on enemies to overcome, they can direct the character to be more introspective: • Have a familiar SGC notice the differences in the way the character is acting and ask what’s happened TITANS ON THE THRESHOLD While completing the Threshold Deed, a Demigod can choose to take on any of the Titanic Callings from Titanomachy as part of his progress. If he still has any of those Callings when he completes the Milestone, however, it becomes a fixed part of his character and will cause other legendary beings to treat him accordingly.

30 CHAPTER ONE: STORYGUIDING APOTHEOSIS to him. Is this how he is going to be forever? Does he like the person he has become? • Create situations that could be handled easily through one of her former Callings but is much more difficult now. If she triumphs, is it with the confidence that she isn’t bound by her old habits, or does she wish she could have taken the more familiar path? If she fails, does she regret her decisions? • Create situations that the Demigod’s current Calling allows him to succeed at where he had failed with an old one, then have an SGC confront him about his past failure: “Why is it that you brought this man back to life, but you let my brother die?” Unless the player wants it to be, the Threshold isn’t necessarily all about existential angst. Its more playful aspect is the chance that it offers characters to discover new abilities and approaches to problem-solving that they hadn’t considered before, with the knowledge that even if it ends up not suiting them, it’s only temporary. The idea of playfulness is something that the Storyguide can use as well, by sending the Demigod into some of the stranger corners of the World without warning. A Demigod on the Threshold is always a little disconnected from the World, so it doesn’t take much for him to turn a corner and end up somewhere quite different. Scions of the Tuatha Dé Danann who travel by boat are especially prone to end up passing islands full of strange animals, quarrelsome giants, or inscrutable omens. Those of the Shén find themselves in lands whose existence is all but forgotten by Heaven’s bureaucrats, usually inhabited by a single minor God and some precious treasure — a unique flower, animal, or stone — that he was once tasked to watch over. Nearly anyone who ventures far enough from cities can find the hidden places where animals talk and take on human shapes whenever they please (or where visitors turn into animals themselves). If all the players’ Demigods are passing through the Threshold stage together, any visit to an Otherworld also provides the Storyguide with the chance to play with the passage of time. They could enter a realm in which nothing has changed for hundreds or thousands of years, giving the impression that they’ve travelled into the past. They could stay in one for the entire duration of the stage but return to discover that only a day has passed since they left. Then again, they could emerge to find it’s been seven years, even though they’re sure they were only gone for a week. Still troubled by what she thinks of as the futility of Dr. Gentile’s self-sacrifice, Rhiannon spends time questioning her own purpose and adopts the Liminal Calling in place of Healer. She drifts away from her Band and familiar relationships, preferring to go places where no one knows who she is. Everywhere she goes, she takes on new roles, trying to find one that fits her. First, her player drops the Leader Calling in favor of Warrior to see if attacking the sources of her anger feels right. It doesn’t, and it doesn’t feel any better when she switches Warrior to Hunter to focus on tracking down mortals kidnapped by the Aos Sí. Next, she replaces Liminal with Trickster, Hunter with Judge, Judge with Sage, and Trickster with Lover, always keeping the Guardian Calling that her player thinks is most important to her. She ends by taking up the Healer Calling in place of Lover when an encounter in Mexico City reminds her that healing others in body and soul is one of her other foundations. When she emerges from her Threshold wanderings, her final Callings are Guardian, Healer, and Sage — two of the ones possessed by her mother, Brigid, and one of her own choosing. She isn’t planning to emulate her mother. She knows for certain that she is going to follow her own path. Anyone who reads enough myths eventually notices that most stories weren’t meant to be coherent or internally consistent. Gods demonstrate powers in one story that they never use again, wise ones make stupid decisions, characters appear and are never mentioned again. For a player whose Demigod is following the path of an existing God, these uncharacteristic stories are the ones to look at for inspiration in the Threshold stage. In serious mythologies, they’re usually the funniest stories, or at least the most absurd. If there aren’t any myths like that available, then it’s up to the player and Storyguide to create them, or at least start with a premise that they want to explore together. What if Thoth were a Warrior? What would Xīpe Totēc be like as a Lover? The fact that these stories often don’t exist means that even though the current Gods of those names undoubtedly went through their own Thresholds, they ended up so completely rejecting their alternate identities that none of the Deeds they performed had any impact on their Legend — which is exactly the point for the aspiring God. A Demigod who wants another God’s Mantle isn’t exploring other possibilities to discover her true self, but to deliberately cast aside everything that doesn’t belong to the Mantle. SUCCESS The Demigod passes successfully through the Threshold after changing at least two of his original Callings at least once and adopting a minimum of six new Callings before settling on the three he wants to keep. Passing the Threshold reinforces the Demigod’s Callings as part of his growing Mantle: From the end of the session in which he makes his final decision until he completes Apotheosis, he cannot voluntarily change Callings. If he suffers a Failure Deed for a Calling along the way, he must succeed at an Adoption Deed to regain the same Calling.

In the footsteps of the gods 31 FAILURE Most Demigods don’t so much fail the Threshold as decide that they don’t want it to end. Nothing is forcing them to complete it, after all, and if they prefer to be the mythic version of a Peter Pan, they can. The only drawback is that until a character successfully completes this stage, she cannot increase her Legend score: The threads of competing and contradictory stories are too ill-defined to allow her Mantle to develop any further. Furthermore, if she completes two Long-term Deeds before achieving this Milestone, she is considered to have failed it and must start again from the beginning, using her current Callings as the starting point. FORESHADOWING A Demigod who succeeds at the Threshold can, during the Theophany stage, call on her past experiences for one use of any single Knack from any Calling that she doesn’t currently have. The effect of the Knack lasts for one scene or its usual duration, whichever is less, and otherwise follows the normal rules for its use. THE DESCENT The mortal body of a Demigod isn’t meant to last. It’s a vessel in which divine ichor incubates throughout the Heroic phase of his life, but by the time he reaches Demigod status, the body is barely capable of containing it. It’s like a flimsy and overstuffed plastic bag, ready to burst at the slightest stumble, that a Scion tries to carry home intact. The Descent stage of the journey to Apotheosis marks the point at which she fully accepts that ordinary mortality can’t accommodate her needs anymore. The Descent is a Divine Deed that nearly always takes the form of a literal visit to the Underworld of the Demigod’s Pantheon, specifically to whichever part of it is home to the human dead. By spending time there, she allows Fate to mark his mortal side for destruction: even when she returns (if she returns), it starts an inescapable countdown to her own death. If she has been successful in this stage, however, that death won’t be her end, but the moment of metamorphosis into a God. Even though every Demigod must complete the Descent to reach Apotheosis, few choose to visit the Underworld early in their journey. The burden of being constantly aware of impending death can cast a shadow over everything that follows. Time is always running out, and no matter the Underworld, it will keep calling to the Demigod until she finally surrenders to it. The first thing to decide when planning the Descentlinked Deed is its purpose. In some Pantheons, it’s easy to visit the Underworld. Most of them, after all, don’t exist to keep people out, and even for a Demigod, even the forces that keep the dead from leaving freely are not an insurmountable obstacle. For the Descent, however, there must be a clear goal to the visit, and it’s up to the player to name that goal. As with other stages, the character’s Callings can provide inspiration when combined with the nature of the particular Underworld. For example: • Ancestral Wisdom (any): If the Underworld is home to all those who have died, the Scion travels there to learn from great figures of the past. This can help any Demigod, whether he is a Sage trying to unravel the mysteries of life and death, a Hunter who needs to learn how to slay a World-threatening dragon, or a Lover who wants to speak with her parents one last time. Unlike in myth, the Underworlds of Scion may also hold the mortal selves that Gods left behind during their own Apotheoses, which can offer a glimpse into the motivations of the current holders of their Mantles or insights into how to bargain with them. Gods who claim to have existed since the creation of the World hide these remnants of their human lives very carefully. • Humility (Guardian, Warrior): Death is one thing that a Warrior cannot conquer, and a Guardian cannot protect against. By visiting an Underworld, he confronts this truth in the form of spirits of the dead who ignore weapons, old enemies who swarm in endless numbers to wear down his strength while feeling no pain, and the remnants of former allies he DEATH BEFORE THE DESCENT A Scion who dies before beginning the Descent Milestone can still return to the World through his own actions or those of others. His spirit travels to the appropriate Underworld for his pantheon, from which escape is as easy as it is for anyone else among the dead. A Scion of the Netjer might require someone to resurrect her using passages from the Egyptian Book of the Dead. A Scion of the Theoi can try to navigate Hades to find one of its many exits, while one of the Annuna might have to offer up someone else to take his place. How much of a challenge this is depends on the resources available to the Scion and his Band. Healing and Death Marvels can make the return short, and Storyguides are encouraged to allow them if players aren’t interested in mounting a rescue mission to the Underworld. If they don’t have strong feelings one way or the other, roll a Clash of Wills using the Legend of the character performing the resurrection against Legend 10 to represent the powers of the Underworld trying to keep their grip on the deceased.

32 CHAPTER ONE: STORYGUIDING APOTHEOSIS lost along his journey. In the realm of Hades, even Achilles is a miserable shade who can’t speak without an offering of sacrificial blood; his conversation with Odysseus is a stark reminder that the reality of death is never glorious, no matter how many stories live on. • Theodicy (Judge, Sage): Diyu is an immense visual lesson in the divine punishments that follow people’s actions in the World. Liars and gossipers have their tongues ripped from their heads, those who oppressed others in life are ground up in mills, arsonists are chained to red-hot copper pillars, and so on. Naraka assigns different punishments but keeps to the same theme of delivering poetically appropriate justice in a very physical way. A Demigod Judge who enters these realms or those like them confronts two things: the consequences of divine law and her duty to uphold that law. A Sage, on the other hand, wants to see the Underworld to know its geography, to ask its rulers about the nature of death, or to be able to return to his mortal followers with answers to their own questions. • Theft (Creator, Trickster): According to the Teōtl, all of humanity living in the present World were made from bones taken from Mictlan. Some Underworlds are treasuries of the ancient past, holding not only the dead but all those things they once possessed. It makes them very tempting targets for theft by a Trickster who’s willing to risk everything for bragging rights or a Creator who needs something that doesn’t exist in the World anymore. • Escort (Liminal, Lover): Liminal Demigods frequently take on the role of psychopomp as Gods, bringing the dead into the Underworld and carrying messages between there and the World. In the Descent stage, his goal may be to bring one very important person there, lead everyone who died in a catastrophe, or simply persuade the rulers of the realm to grant him the right to come and go as he wishes. If it’s one person, the journey for a psychopomp won’t be an easy one: Think of Sisyphus, whose final punishment came about because it was the only way to keep him too busy to escape Hades for the second or third time. It can be different for a Lover, who either descends into the Underworld to say farewell forever to someone she loved or to plead with its Gods to offer a reprieve. Sometimes, a Demigod fails, as Orpheus did with Eurydice, but Dionysus not only came back with his mother, Semele, but brought her to Olympus with him. • Authority (Healer, Leader): A Healer can promise immortality to those who serve him and demonstrate his power by resurrecting the dead. Eventually, though, the Gods of death will grow resentful of this constant poaching of their subjects: If anyone can come back to life through the right prayers, what power does death have at all? A Healer who wants to claim authority over death must come to an agreement with its Gods, who will ask a high price in return. They may set rules about what kind of people can return (only the most virtuous or only Scions, for example) or set limits on the kinds of deaths that the Healer can affect (only deaths from disease or childbirth, never deaths from old age, or never those killed by divine figures). A Leader, on the other hand, goes to the Underworld to declare authority over its subjects as an extension of her broader powers of rulership. As the myth of Ishtar and Ereshkigal shows, some Gods of the Underworld respond to such claims with a sharp rebuke. The structure of the Deed associated with the Descent follows an order that resembles the Hero stories of folklore: • The Demigod decides that he must enter the Underworld • He searches for a supernatural guide or other source of information on how to do so • He undertakes a long journey to reach his destination • He comes face-to-face with the powers of death • He escapes with new insight or treasure but knows he must return there soon The first and last parts can be very brief. The length of the second one depends on how easy the pantheon in question makes it for anyone to enter the Underworld without dying. It may require finding a legendary figure who has made the journey before, learning a complicated ritual to open the way, or discovering a secret gateway somewhere in the World. The third step is the most open. For Underworlds whose geography has been well charted in myths, a BUT WHAT IF… … there’s no Underworld? If a Demigod is part of a pantheon that doesn’t have an Underworld, then the Descent is a journey to whatever realm is home to the human dead. They can also spend time in the Veil (p. 197). … Anubis is my dad? Scions of Gods of the dead don’t have any easier of a time in the Descent. If anything, their divine parents treat them more harshly to teach them what it means to fill that role in the World.

In the footsteps of the gods 33 Storyguide already has a map of the parts that he wants characters to explore and possibly a source for obstacles along the way, so reaching the Underworld is less important than travelling through it. For Underworlds that don’t have such elaborate descriptions, he should instead put the emphasis on the problem of how to enter it to begin with. Just as importantly, he can use that journey to make the destination more ominous, such as through repeated encounters with ghosts, the deaths of minor characters along the way, or the sight of tragedies that act as reminders of how frail mortal life is. Coming face-to-face with the powers of death means different things depending on the Demigod’s purpose in visiting the Underworld and her relationship with whatever Gods have authority over it. For a Trickster who wants to steal from Mictlan, for example, it probably involves getting caught and brought before Mictecacihuatl or finding a way into her palace to persuade her to lend him some of her treasure. A Sage, on the other hand, could have a very polite conversation with Yama about the nature of death, dharma, and karma. The meeting between Scion and God can be a single scene of social interaction or it can be the start of a series of tasks that the Demigod must carry out in order to prove his worthiness. It’s up to the players and Storyguide to decide how much game time they want to devote to it. When it’s finished, all that remains is to return to the World. Unless the story up to this point has resulted in someone sprinting through Hades’ realm with armloads of Persephone’s jewelry, the return doesn’t need to be a long scene. Upon reaching the World, however, every Demigod knows at once that her mortal side is now destined to return there soon. It’s the price of leaving that everyone must pay. Rhiannon’s Descent begins the growing feeling that her struggles aren’t only with the Aos Sí — she’s met enough by now to know they’re far from united, even if some of them resent her — and a series of unanswered questions. She doesn’t know how Aillén the Burner got possession of the Head of Balor, who sent the titanspawn that killed Dr. Gentile, or why, in her Threshold wanderings, she kept meeting enemies who were beautiful, shallow, and corrupt. Most of all, she wants to know why her life must be this way. Because she knows that Aillén is currently in Mag Mell, she decides to go directly to him to find answers. Her player tells the Storyguide that she’s chosen the Sage Calling as her focus for this Milestone. At first, she thinks she will have to pass through Teich Duinn and convince the God Donn to let her travel to Mag Mell, but with help from her allies, Rhiannon manages to secure passage on a ship that makes the journey directly once a year. When the day comes, she sets sail and finally reaches the flower-covered island of the contented dead. Out of courtesy, she visits the tower of Manannán mac Lir, where she is feasted while being entertained with stories of her mother’s people. When she asks him why she has to continue to struggle, why she’s repeatedly caught up in battles and destruc- tion, Manannán tells her that Mag Mell is the alternative: Everyone is peaceful, no one can change their circumstances, and no one feels strongly enough to try. The answer doesn’t give her much satisfaction, but it’s one that she and her player will keep in mind as they move on. Rhiannon doesn’t know how much time passes there. Before she leaves to find Aillén’s hall on the island, her host tells her that because she has eaten the food of Mag Mell, a part of her will always remain there. Manannán knows she plans to return to the World, but also knows her time away will be brief. Aillén’s hall, its roof perpetually burning without giving off heat or being consumed, is not hard to find. The Burner himself feels no animosity to- ward her, although he casually promises to kill her if they meet again in the World. Mag Mell has dulled his emotions too much for anger, and so they talk. He tells her that Bres showed him how to find the Head of Balor and prompted him to use it against her and her home city. It has been Bres, too, whose beautiful servants keep dogging her steps. Why? Because in the battle between the Tuatha Dé Danann and the Fomorians, Brigid sided with the Tuatha even when they killed the son she shared with Bres. Aillén believes that Bres wants Brigid to feel that pain herself. Armed with that knowledge, Rhiannon leaves Mag Mell for the World to make her final plans. SUCCESS By accomplishing the Descent, a Demigod accepts that the rest of his journey to Apotheosis risks a lasting death. If he dies before achieving his final goal, he will not return, and his Mantle remains incomplete until someone else takes it up. Therefore, most Demigods leave this stage until just before the Theophany, to minimize the chance of an accidental death along the way. If he wishes, the Demigod’s player can immediately set his character’s Virtue track to either extreme upon completing the Descent to reflect the dramatic change in Worldview that the lessons of the Underworld can bring about. FAILURE Failing the Descent can happen in three major ways. If the Demigod never reaches the powers of death, either because he cannot pass some of its challenges or is so overwhelmed by the Underworld that he decides to retreat, he returns to the World and must find a different route to enter it again. If he meets with the Gods of the Underworld

34 CHAPTER ONE: STORYGUIDING APOTHEOSIS and does something that outrages or offends them, he winds up a prisoner there and must be rescued by someone else. The same thing happens if he refuses to accept the price of success. By clinging too strongly to his mortality, he is effectively choosing to keep divine and mortal sides together indefinitely — in the Underworld itself. None of these happen by accident. Whatever a character knows about the workings of the Underworld, the player should be fully aware that trying to kidnap Persephone is a bad idea with lasting consequences (ask Pirithous) and that setting up a situation in which her character has to be rescued by her allies is going to take that character out of play for a while. Because it also forces the rest of the group to intervene, it’s best to get the agreement of the other players before doing so. FORESHADOWING The Demigod’s fated mortality is only a lingering consequence of the Descent. THEOPHANY Long after the game is over, a Demigod’s Theophany is the story to go to when someone says, “Tell me about your character.” It’s the culmination of a lengthy process of character development, rises, falls, plot twists, and unexpected discoveries. All of that comes together in one final story that showcases the best and truest qualities of that character. One way or another, it’s an ending. Even if a player wants to continue with the same character in God, being a God is fundamentally different from anything he has been so far, and some people will want to use the Theophany as a way to retire their characters for good and start again with a new generation of Heroes. The form of the Theophany depends on whether the Demigod intends to establish her own identity as a God, complete the work of a past Hero, or take on an existing God’s Mantle. It always involves a World-changing action of some kind, whether as small as implementing new laws for devotees of a pantheon or as large as creating an entire species of Denizens or humans. How long it takes to accomplish is up to the players and the Storyguide: it can be a one- or two-session climax to an ongoing plot arc or its own complete narrative, whichever they prefer. Ragnarok can act as an example of the climactic style of Theophany, with several distinct and self-contained myths all contributing to the way that a single battle unfolds. The binding and subsequent escape of Fenrir, Freyr coming to war without his sword because he gave it away in an earlier story, Loki fully siding with the Jötnar after his own punishment for the death of Baldr — all of these come together at once. Ragnarok itself takes place over an indefinite length of time, with the three years of Fimbulwinter being one sign of its beginning along with other upheavals of the natural World and human society, but those events get little attention in the texts. In terms of gameplay, they happen offstage as a narrated prelude to the focus of the game sessions that cover the battle itself. A Storyguide who wants to use it as a model must look back at a Demigod’s journey so far and decide whether a short Theophany fits naturally as a conclusion. If all of the steps leading to this point feel like parts of a coherent story and all that it needs to be complete is one chapter, then it makes sense to keep it short. If, on the other hand, they have been more like a series of distinct stories, then it may be better to make the Theophany into a new and complete arc on its own, like the final book in a multi-volume series. In either case, the Theophany doesn’t have to follow immediately after the completion of the stage before it. When playing in a group, characters will complete their journeys at different speeds, so some of them have the chance to slow down while the others catch up if they want to. Players can use that time to resolve minor plot threads that they’ve neglected or interact with secondary SGCs whose stories have been on the peripheries of their own as a farewell tour of significant moments from their own history. Even if the entire group is ready to begin the Theophany at the same time, there can be a jump ahead in time to acknowledge a pause and separate it from what’s come before. However much downtime a player takes before starting the Theophany, it begins when she declares that she is ready. Once the Theophany begins, the Demigod’s pantheon knows it. So do his enemies, who see undeniable signs from Fate that something tremendous is about to happen, even if they don’t know what. Anyone he has ever Fatebound in the past, no matter how long ago or how insignificant now, has at least an inkling of the same kind. They have dreams about him, recite spontaneous prayers, or create art that memorializes their relationship. Some of these portents will be joyous, most look more like prophecies of doom. The Theophany must have a clear goal beyond “I’m going to become a God now.” This is where a Demigod needs to answer the questions raised in the “True Callings” section above. Her player must decide how her character is going to answer them and, by doing so, show that he is ready for Apotheosis. The job of the Storyguide at this point is to encourage the player to think bigger and raise the stakes as much as possible. Neither player nor Storyguide need to work out all the details yet; they just must agree on the biggest, most epic goal to achieve. DESIGNING THE STORY The setting for the Theophany stage is never somewhere familiar or comfortable to the Demigod. If there’s an enemy, the final confrontation either takes place in his own territory or some place that’s removed from his and the Demigod’s own homes. For a story-length Theophany, travel to that place can take up the first act. For a short one, the Storyguide can put more focus on discovering where the confrontation is going to happen, then skip the details of the trip there. Wherever it takes place, the site of the Theophany is going to become sacred in the Demigod’s myth. If it’s

In the footsteps of the gods 35 somewhere in the World, mortals will make pilgrimages there afterward or build shrines and monuments to commemorate it. If it’s outside the World, the event still leaves a permanent mark that immortalizes what happened there, like a single blasted mountain in the heart of Jötunheim or a lake in Mictlan filled with the tears of those who wept for the Demigod’s death. If possible, the Storyguide should choose a location that reflects either the personality of the Demigod’s adversary or the goal of the Theophany. New laws and judgments are handed out from mountains, temples, or the hearts of cities. Armies fight on open fields, while monsters hide in their lairs. Don’t worry about making symbolism excessive or too direct. Most myths aren’t known for their subtlety, either. The difficulty of the final challenge isn’t always easy to determine in advance. If the Storyguide underestimates a Demigod’s abilities, it can end up being a disappointment and a flat ending to an otherwise exciting story. If he overestimates them, he risks ending with the mythic version of Bambi vs. Godzilla, which is equally unsatisfying. Generally, he should keep in mind what resources the Demigod will have. Assuming she attempts Apotheosis at Legend 8, that means: • 9 active Knacks from Callings • 8 Legendary Titles that can be called on to perform actions at Scale 4 • 8 Boons • Up to 9 Fatebindings • Whatever additional abilities she possesses through Birthrights or Realm Birthrights • Foreshadowing advantages gained from the Parting and Threshold stages of the journey It’s a lot to juggle, and that’s only for one character. If the rest of her Band is helping her, finding the right balance of challenge becomes even more difficult. A single antagonist, while mythically appropriate, can fall quickly when attacked by several Demigods. But unless the entire Band is attempting their Apotheosis at the same time, it’s up to the character whose Theophany this is to deliver victory. Letting others do most of the work and swooping in at the end isn’t the demonstration of readiness for Godhood that Fate smiles upon. It must be clearly, unmistakably the effort of one character. Others can provide support through their Knacks and Marvels, defeat lesser threats that stand between the Demigod and her ultimate challenge, or offer teamwork bonuses. What matters is that, in the end, everyone at the table agrees afterward that this particular win belongs to the character whose Theophany it is. SUCCESS Most of the time, a Demigod succeeds at the Theophany by decisively accomplishing the goal that he set out to. He has changed the World, either by adding his own myth to it or by re-enacting the myth of a God who changed it in the past. He achieves Apotheosis and becomes a God.

36 CHAPTER ONE: STORYGUIDING APOTHEOSIS It is possible, however, to subvert Fate by denying it the story that it wants, but still become a God. If a player declares the goal of her Theophany to be to kill a particular enemy, but she chooses to resolve the encounter peacefully instead of through violence, she still succeeds. She has still changed the World, just in a different way than expected. She won’t end up being the kind of God that others expected and will now be forever bound by Fate to reconcile with enemies instead of defeating them in battle, but she will still be a God. If the Demigod’s aim were to take on the Mantle of another God and he tries to subvert Fate this way, the outcome is up to the player and Storyguide. The myths of established Gods are powerful, but there is room in them for variations. He could end up with a different name and different associations — a Mercury instead of a Hermes — or he could be retroactively adopted as a child of that God, the kind whose myths are so similar that it’s hard to know where one God ends and the other begins. Whichever way it happens, the Demigod’s mortal life is over. She doesn’t necessarily die (although most do), but the rest of the mortal part of her story is reduced to “and she did many other wonderful things in her life,” “and she ruled wisely until her death,” or “and she left her companions in that place and was never seen again.” Narratively, she is done. Unless she becomes a God. FAILURE As mentioned above, a Demigod who makes a minimal contribution to the work of the Theophany fails. While the Storyguide can be generous in deciding how much effort counts as significant and shouldn’t hold a series of bad die rolls against the player, the final say is up to him as to whether or not it’s enough. And sometimes, it just isn’t enough — but in this case, the character should die a mortal death, in an appropriately dramatic fashion. The second, and far more common, way to fail is for the Demigod to die before completing her goal. She has already promised to surrender her mortality after the Descent, and she will not return. If she dies, her Mantle remains nearly complete, waiting for a Hero who knows her story to take it up, walk in her footsteps, and try again. Rhiannon’s player tells her Storyguide her plan for Theophany: Although Bres has worked against her, she doesn’t want to resolve the conflict through violence. Instead, thinking about how all three of her Callings fit together, she decides that she wants to reconcile Brigid and Bres by finding out from them what she can do to make restitution for the death of Ruadán. Her initial thought is that she can do it by asking Goibniu, the divine smith who was wounded by Ruadán in the Second Battle of Mag Tuireadh and who retaliated by killing him, to pay the honor-price for Bres’ son in traditional Irish fashion. Goibniu, however, points out that the killing happened in a time of war and that Ruadán betrayed his kin among the Tuatha, so he’s under no obligation to pay anything. So instead, Rhiannon sings and makes sacrifices to ask for an audience with both Brigid and Bres. It’s easy enough to draw the attention of her mother, but Bres only appears when she threatens to lay a Geas upon him if he refuses. He comes bearing the spear that killed his son, and after lengthy attempts on Rhiannon’s part to soothe the anger between him and Brigid, agrees to make peace if Rhiannon allows him to throw the spear at her just as it was thrown at Ruadán. If she survives, she can throw it back at Bres, but in either case, the feud will end. Rhiannon consults with her Bandmates and with Brigid, all of whom tell her this will almost certainly kill her, but finally accepts the terms. Bres’ throw not only pierces Rhiannon’s body completely but shatters a hill behind her to form a new valley. Fatally wounded, but not dead, Rhiannon crawls to the spear, picks it up, and… lays it down again. She lets go of the last of her mortal nature, completes her Theophany, and becomes God of Truces and Diplomacy among the Tuatha Dé Danann. FINAL CONSIDERATIONS The route to Apotheosis in this section doesn’t represent any specific pattern of myth from any real-world culture. People have been telling mythic stories for too long for any one “hero’s journey” to depict them all accurately. What it does instead is highlight elements that are common to greater or lesser degrees and give the Storyguide a way to turn them into a playable experience that uses the rules of Scion. It also provides a consistent set of guidelines so that players know what to expect their characters will go through, with room for them to make their own decisions along the way. If the players and Storyguide want, they can reimagine the journey to Apotheosis in other terms, so long as they keep the bare minimum of structure the same: five Divine Deeds that must include the resolution of a powerful Fatebinding, an opportunity to explore other Callings, and the final Theophany to acquire a completed Mantle. Each step counts as a Milestone, with the Demigod having to complete one Milestone before starting the next. Unless it’s appropriate earlier in the journey, assume that the drawback of completing the Descent Milestone happens after the fourth step. Instead of focusing on Callings to provide a framework, this alternate story structure might use some of the recognized Heroic archetypes that appear in World mythologies to guide character development. For example: • Founder: Founding Heroes establish societies for their communities. Some of them double as mythic ancestors to whom every royal bloodline traces its origin, while others may actually be the creators of

The Myth Engine 37 the mortals they go on to protect. Common major events in the myth of a founder are the establishment of his authority in the community by overcoming enemies or displaying divine favor, leading people from their old lands to a new one, making the new land safe for habitation, and building a city or temple around which the community will grow. • Culture Hero: A culture hero teaches a society who to survive in the World by giving its people the tools and methods to do so. That can mean anything from proper hunting techniques to rules of etiquette to the establishment of a calendar. What’s most important is that the culture Hero does these things by being the first person in the society to do them, and thereby acting as a model of behavior for those who come after. Some culture Heroes are inventive and find new ways to solve old problems. Others are Tricksters who steal the property of the Gods to give it to humanity. • Monster Slayer: Monster-slaying Heroes aren’t remembered for battling ordinary enemies, although they may do plenty of that in their lives. They’re remembered for fighting one monster that embodies all of the things that a society fears: the physical manifestations of chaos, famine, drought, death, darkness, winter, the sea, or whatever else threatens to destroy mortal lives if left unchecked. In many cases, the monster isn’t one that can ever be defeated completely, so the myth of the monster slayer is one without any real ending and the Hero becomes an immortal protector against the threat. • Great Teacher: The teacher enters a community to give the people a new way to live in the World. He establishes codes of behavior where none existed before, institutes a reform of old ways, or reveals mysteries of divinity that help people understand their place in the cosmos. His myths include ones about his own discovery of the truths he will pass on to others, the gathering of followers, struggles with the current sources of authority in the society, and demonstrations of the correctness of his teachings. • Force of Nature: Most Heroes tie their stories directly to human societies, but a few define themselves by being outside of them. Instead of representing the people of the World, they either become embodiments of its wilder aspects — plants, animals, or natural phenomena. They may interact with humans by establishing rules for how they must treat the natural World or they may leave humanity behind completely and perhaps even shed their human form. • Intermediary: Psychopomps lead the living to the realms of the dead, and heralds deliver messages from the Gods to humanity. Intermediary Heroes take up the task of ensuring communication between the mortal and divine Worlds without giving much thought to their own needs and desires. They often let their own stories come second in favor of being the instruments of greater powers. When they do act on their own, it’s because they have their own feelings about the message they must deliver or the people they deliver it to. THE MYTH ENGINE Being a Demigod is the process of building a Mantle, building the being you will become when your mortal self meets its Fated end. Outside the narrative, there’s a little more going on under the hood. To construct a meaningful, coherent, and enjoyable experience of Apotheosis, the Storyguide needs to lay the groundwork ahead of time. This isn’t railroading, but rather preparation, with flexibility in mind, for the path that Demigod characters will take as they stretch beyond the bounds of their mortality. Fate wants certain things, yes, but it doesn’t really care how it gets those things, or how its playthings go about the process, which means that the journey can take on innumerable forms, each with its own consequences for what will become of the Demigod when she transcends. SETTING THE STAGE The first step to constructing a future for players’ characters is to know what those players want for their characters. If this isn’t clear, ask, though it’s likely that players will happily tell the Storyguide all about what their plans and intentions are — and if not, the Storyguide can and should ask. It’s rare that a player will have no plans or ideas, but if that’s the case, the following questions can help to tease out leads for the Storyguide to follow. What does your character love the most? This gives you something to feature centrally in the story, whether it’s a person, place, concept, or ideal. Take whatever answer the player gives you and threaten it, obliquely at first but increasingly directly as her character’s power and agency in the setting grows. What does your character hate the most? As above, but instead of threatening it, make this powerful, popular, a real threat to the character. When it comes time to choose a Nemesis for the character, choose a God who best reflects the answer. Let this serve as a motif for what she is attempting to overturn in her Apotheosis. What would your character die for? This is the acid test of any Heroic character, and may shed some light on how the player might like to see the final step of Apotheosis play out — how will this character’s mortal shell die? “Nothing” is always a valid answer to this question! In such a case, the character must ultimately confront their own ego, their fear of death, to transcend their mortality. Will they make that leap of faith, or let divinity slip through their fingers? Once you know the character’s essential values, you can begin to extrapolate those outward, planning events with a reasonable expectation of how they’ll react. This will, of course, vary from character to character —  an

38 CHAPTER ONE: STORYGUIDING APOTHEOSIS Amazon Scion of Artemis is going to have a very different take on her incipient divinity than a Scion of Ares plucked from a macho paramilitary unit, and that’s just within a single pantheon. The same event might work to reinforce the beliefs of both playing on something that leaves them diametrically opposed. Be careful not to put bandmates at odds too often, though, even if the story revolves around a growing rivalry. The characters should always have more reasons to work together than to be at each other’s throats. DIVINE DEEDS The Deeds of Heroes are mighty and numinous, to be sure, but the Deeds of Demigods approach another order of magnitude altogether. Some of those Deeds outshine even the rest, resonating with Fate and the Demigod’s future Apotheosis — these are called Divine Deeds, and they form the structure the Storyguide creates in advance to shepherd the story to its conclusion. We explore the deeper mythic structure of Divine Deeds in The Apotheosis Roadmap (p. 15), but, in short, these consist of the Second Call, the Parting, the Threshold, the Descent, and the Theophany. This is the process of announcing to the World that a Hero is ready to rise above mere mortality, discovering that such a life means further burdens, experimenting with how her Callings influence her, shedding ties to mortality, and finally allowing her mortal self to die and her nascent Mantle to ascend to Godhood. As characters fulfill each Divine Deed, they’ll become encoded into her Mantle, influencing the World around her — her values will be tested, and the character’s cult (she has a cult at this point, don’t lie) are going to demand more and more of her in that vein. Those Deeds yet unfulfilled can change this over time. Characters are sculpting the God they’re becoming, and they can, to a certain extent, change who that God will be. Throughout this process, don’t neglect non-Divine Deeds. These are chosen by players, but Storyguides remain in control of the context those Deeds take place in. Lean in with the themes of the character’s growing Mantle. Fate knows what it wants and isn’t shy about saying so, and neither should you — if not directly. Players may lean into this, choosing Deeds for themselves that mirror an idea for a Divine Deed the Storyguide already selected, and if the character is ready to fulfill that Divine Deed, there’s nothing wrong with that at all. Don’t lose sight of Fate’s end goal, though. While there’s room for other adventures amidst the larger story of Apotheosis, Storytellers shouldn’t allow more than two long-term Deeds to pass between Divine Deeds. FATEBINDING AND YOU Fatebinding is the most powerful tool in your arsenal for showing the character’s Mantle forcing itself increasingly into their lives, as Fate’s gentle suggestions become demands. Demigod characters become Fatebound much more easily than Heroic characters, giving you more opportunities to do so. Remember, Deeds are in-setting destinies as well as sentences on a character sheet, and every Fatebinding can ultimately become caught up in one of the character’s Divine Deeds. Keep an eye on floating Divine Deeds compatible with Fatebound Storyguide characters and use those Storyguide characters to steer the narrative toward those Deeds. Remember, too, that Fatebound characters who become bound up in a Divine Deed are being written into the Demigod’s divine Mantle. Even if they survive the process (which is not guaranteed, especially if they’re a Canary), they’re becoming subsumed into the growing Legend of the character, a kind of Fatebinding beyond even the normal sort. This may intensify or shuffle the role Fate has in mind for them, but either way their very existence will become a motif throughout the rest of the Demigod’s existence, and vice versa. Think of Scorpio, the enormous scorpion that became a constellation as Orion ascended, or of Philoctetes, who inherited Heracles’ envenomed arrows and slew Paris (who himself had slain Achilles with an arrow!) at Troy. These characters become defined by their relationship to the Demigod, even after they are dead or the Demigod has ascended — they are, in effect, the ripples emanating from the Demigod’s Apotheosis, as though it were a rock thrown into a pond. BUILDING A FUTURE: HOW TO USE DIVINE DEEDS Once you know what your players want for their characters (and what those characters want for themselves and the World around them), you can begin to lay out the beginnings of a structured narrative leading them to those goals and beyond. Each step in this narrative is a single Divine Deed. Each Demigod character requires five Divine Deeds, mirroring the steps discussed above. These can take virtually any form, and occur in any order, save for the final one — shedding one’s mortal life and ascending (or not, as the story demands). FORM AND FORMLESSNESS: THE STRUCTURE OF FLOATING DEEDS Divine Deeds are not quite the same as normal Deeds. Apart from not being chosen by the player, they’re also mutable, able to shift and change due to the exigencies and demands of the narrative, since they can occur in variable order. It’s possible that the Storyguide will hit the nail on the head with their first draft of a character’s Divine Deeds, and the player will follow them one after the other to Apotheosis — but it’s not likely. Players will often exceed your expectations. Plan accordingly. To aid this, it’s best to think of yet unrealized Divine Deeds as floating Deeds, which have yet to be crystalized and embedded in a divine Mantle by Heroic action. Floating Deeds’ mutable quality means you can plan for different iterations of the same event. Say, for example, Caesar heeds the words of the soothsayer to beware the Ides of March — he is still Fated to be betrayed and murdered by his friends, but rather than in the Senate, it might be in his home, or it might take place another day. There’s

The Myth Engine 39 nothing inherently cursed about the Ides of March, after all (indeed, they were sacred to Jupiter). Even if the Deed is not deferred but wholly circumvented, there’s still plenty of room to re-adapt it to the myth as it’s now progressing. Managing this process will be one of the Storyguide’s central tasks in Demigod play. Rather than laying down railroad tracks, think of floating Deeds as building channels, like canals, to direct the flow of the character’s destiny, or a network of roads that crisscross before reaching their destinations. They might have branches, and they might end up in some vastly different places depending on what happens in play. Floating Divine Deeds allow the Storyguide to manage these details without creating a tremendous amount of overhead — a single floating Deed and the associated ideas for how it might be handled could easily fit on a single index card. TITLES AS TELEOLOGY A character’s Legendary Titles — and by the time they’re Demigods, they have a collection of them! —  are as much a part of her divine Mantle as her Deeds. Don’t ignore these when designing or foreshadowing Divine Deeds. Remember, Fate loves an encore: If a character becomes known as the “Shepherd of Knives” for seizing control of a secret society of knife-obsessed assassins, the Storyguide can lean on that to ensure that the character has a very knife-ful future, one way or another. If one of your Demigods is the “Slayer of Wicked Men,” throw wicked men at them until they’re all but sick of it because that’s what Fate wants of them (and, if the player chose that Title, it’s because that’s what the player wants for her character). Legendary Titles are also a useful source of ideas for alternate Divine Deeds, if the Storyguide is still running into trouble or the story takes an unusual turn. By this point, characters have so many Titles it’s easy to lean on them without repeating themes directly, even if several Titles get used in this manner, and because Titles are player-chosen, it’s a fair bet they’ll be excited to see the motif played out in the game. Over time, a character might outgrow her Titles. Even the great stories of myth, handed down since time immemorial, change in the telling. As a Demigod shifts Callings and discovers more about her own nature, it’s entirely valid to adjust her Titles as well, replacing keywords as necessary. That “Shepherd of Knives,” if she sheds her Guardian Calling in favor of Lover, might become “The Knife-Wed,” as knives become more of a symbol than an instrument for her — her cult might ritually bleed themselves as part of marriage vows, for example, and Fate will likely offer her plenty of opportunities to bleed for love herself. Remember that Calling Title keywords are there to serve as inspiration, not restriction. As long as the Title fits the general tenor of the Calling (as interpreted through the lens of the character’s own myth), anything will work. This is especially true if the event being melded into the Demigod’s Mantle crosses lines between Callings —  if a Demigod with Healer and Leader Callings creates a mystical disease that only becomes acute in those who speak against her, she might become known as “She Who Burns Tongues,” after the symptom of the disease itself. A Warrior and Judge who forges a sword that only cuts those she pronounces guilty might be called “The JudgementEdged.” Ultimately, the only fixed criteria are that the Title is thematic and is really, really cool. ADJUSTING EXPECTATIONS Things aren’t going to go the way you plan. They might not even go the way the players plan. That’s fine. What matters is that you tell a cool story, one that ends up becoming a myth within your circle of friends. You are engaging in the process of mythology, no different than those your ancestors did, and that process requires flexibility. The story is not always the same twice. REVERSING FATE Fate is ultimately taking cues from the Demigods themselves, and then feeding it back to them. It’s a positive feedback cycle, where little things grow to become big things. Turning that cycle around or deviating from it is hard, but not impossible — and as any regular Storyguide knows, players have a knack for doing the impossible, anyway. Sometimes, of course, this is the result of a player changing her mind about where she wants her character’s story to go. What sounded fun six months ago during character creation might end up feeling not so great when the time comes to play it out now that she’s had time to get to know the character. If this is the case, don’t fight it, but work with the player to help steer her character’s destiny to a place that’s more in line with what she’s aiming for, or what she’s comfortable with. Storypath is collaborative, and the whole point is to have fun. Sometimes, though, these odd reversals or shifts are impulsive decisions, unanticipated even by the player. Maybe they’d make the expected choice 99 times out of 100, but this is the one time they differ. There’s fun drama to be had there —  does Fate notice this departure from the appointed path and steer circumstances to set things “right,” or does it decide that it likes the idea of a fickle, trickster-like version of the character? Ultimately, of course, it’s the Storyguide making the decision on behalf of the ongoing story, answering the question, “what’s the more dramatic option?” This is true even if future floating Deeds, predicated on this Deed turning out a certain way, are now out of the question. In a sense, the character has cleared the board, and while Fate (and the Storyguide) will steer her toward a similar set of conditions if at all possible, it’s still an opportunity for the character to toy with the idea of pivoting to a new path, fighting Fate until Fate gives in and accepts the new road she walks. Just remember that the Storyguideas-Fate is fighting the character, not the player.

40 CHAPTER ONE: STORYGUIDING APOTHEOSIS IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S ME Not every story has a happy ending, and not every protagonist gets what they want. This is as true in Demigod as it is anywhere else — just because a character is reaching for divinity does not mean she’ll succeed, to take her place in the pantheon of her divine parent (or to be adopted by another, or to craft one of her own making, for that matter). Every Demigod is rolling the dice when she accepts the death of her mortal form, trusting to her divine Mantle to carry on without it. This doesn’t have to be a sad moment — maybe, during the process of striving for divinity, the character comes to realize that she doesn’t want what she’s been led to by friends and family. Maybe something holds her back. Maybe she doesn’t want to endure beyond something or someone she loves. Maybe she fears losing herself in the warp and weave of Fate. There are thousands of reasons to choose to shirk divinity, and all of them are valid from a storytelling point of view. When these moments arise, as a Storyguide, it’s a chance to give the character a spotlight moment, to let the narrative hang, for just a moment, on the pathos of someone standing in the antechamber of eternity and being found wanting, or deciding that divinity is wanting. In the aftermath, don’t leave the other players out. Maybe they’ve ascended, or maybe they’re on the verge of doing so — or maybe they’re playing characters who, though mythic, are bereft of divine blood and will never ascend. All of them, though, will have thoughts and feelings about what’s happened, and all of them deserve a chance to meditate upon that in-character. The character they’ve lost, whether to death or to refusal of the call, has left her mark on all of them. INVERTING DIVINITY Fate would like to be a railroad track, set and immutable, but even if it were, that wouldn’t stop things from mucking around with its plans. Remember: You can always jump from a moving train. It’s dangerous, yes. Probably more than a little foolish. But if, say, the train is heading toward a cliff, it might be the lesser of two evils. The same is true of Demigods chasing their Apotheosis. Many begin the process unaware of all that it entails, following their gut through mysteries and enlightenment, and not all may like where it leads them. Few Demigods approach their Apotheosis fully in control of their own destinies — those who do are either very lucky or planned things well in advance, and even those lucky ones sacrificed much to reach the heights. Once a Demigod passes a certain point in their progression to Apotheosis, there is no turning back. For those who approach divinity and do not like what they find waiting for them, there are essentially two options: die a mortal’s death or turn against themselves. Remember, a Demigod is both a mortal shell and a divine Mantle, and it is the divine Mantle that is subject to Fate’s dictates far more than the mortal. As a mortal, the Demigod still possesses sufficient free will that she may, with great difficulty, change the course of the mighty river of destiny she’s being swept along by. Doing so is not a spur or the moment decision, however. It is a struggle that will all but consume what remains of one’s mortal life. When a player decides her character wants to turn against or otherwise significantly change where her Fate is leading her, her path bifurcates. Her remaining floating Divine Deed (remember, the last one is always set!) becomes not a point along a preordained path, but a contest between the character and her Fate, a struggle over the character’s very identity and meaning. The character’s inand-out-of-character story quite literally becomes about fighting her destiny. Ask the player how her character is struggling against her Fate — specifically, how she will turn aside from what she believes her next Divine Deed will be (which, given omens and auguries, she’s likely familiar with in-character). Boil the answer down to a single statement, like any other Deed. That answer becomes an alternate floating Deed, attached to the one she would next be surmounting. Like two sides of a coin, these diametrically opposed destinies await her. Fate will fight furiously to drag her to its predetermined outcome, but should she succeed, she can radically shift the nature of her divine Mantle. What is necessary to accomplish such a feat? Turning against one’s destiny always has a cost, beyond the simple GRIEF FOR FICTIONAL PEOPLE We grow attached to our characters, and to the characters of our friends at the table. We laugh along with them, quarrel with them, endure alongside them. We form bonds, and those bonds are no less real to our hearts than the bonds we have with each other as real, flesh-and-blood people. We invest ourselves into these characters, and we don’t always expect it to hit so hard when we lose them. If you’re Storyguiding when a character dies, whether it’s planned or not, whether or not it’s the conclusion of an arc that leaves everyone thrilled and awed, be ready for that fallout. If possible, schedule things so that the climax finishes off the session or call for a break afterward if you can’t so people can process their emotions. There’s no shame in calling an end early and simply talking about it over a hot beverage of choice. Remember, these folks are your friends, and it’s on you to be there for them, just as they’d be here for you if you were in their shoes.

Coping with Fame 41 price of struggling against all the myriad slings and arrows Fate will bring to bear — sacrifices must be made, parts of oneself cut out or burned away. Intentionally engineering a Crisis of Calling would suffice, for example, but often these floating Divine Deeds needs must be centered around extremes of behavior, even of cruelty or betrayal. With the scales weighted heavily in Fate’s favor, the Demigod must heap ever more of who she used to be on to the other side to strike the balance. COPING WITH FAME You were Chosen, or maybe you made a choice. Either way, you’ve ended up as a Scion. Your Legend has marked you, has made you more than human. The problem with that is, where once you could blend in with everybody else, you could go about your day without anyone bothering you, you’ve become, well…conspicuous. You poor sod. No Demigod gets a nice, calm happy ending. There’s a list several miles long about what player characters can’t do anymore. Even the most obscure Demigod can’t have a social media account without at least 15.5k followers, many of whom would probably like to take them down and show how awful the Gods really are. They can’t go to their six-year-old’s ballet recital, because someone will inevitably drop to their knees and beg for the Scion to act as intercessor with their God, the Scion’s parent. They can’t go to their favorite pub ‘round the corner, because the local Irish country band has started re-writing songs about Lugh to be about them instead. (To be clear, Lugh isn’t happy about that one either.) This goes beyond mere mortal celebrity. They can’t walk the dog because last time they did that, they accidentally called all the neighborhood dogs at once. Knowing how Artemis’ call works is one thing, knowing how to finesse calling Lassie back to their side so every dog in hearing distance doesn’t come at the same time is another. Just ask Actaeon. Being a Scion is hard enough when you’re getting used to just being. But in the modern World where social media can make you go viral in a split second, there’s a smaller adjustment window. In past ages of myth, it used to be that a Demigod could relearn how to exist within the minds of their people, how to just be, with only a few mistakes. Hercules spent several years building a Mantle among the Devá; the Celtic pantheons moved their Gods around quite frequently. But now… Welcome to being a Demigod. Your character’s social life, as they once knew it, is defunct. While there are certainly strategies that one can use to minimize the change, their normal life is undeniably done and dusted. Even if they’ve got a little-known Legend as their patron, they are still going to change. They’re still going to be different. How do they manage that change? Considering that the World leaves little to privacy, your character’s face could potentially be all over social media. Someone might find out where you live using the internet and a celebrity blog site — and then suddenly you’re not just faced with difficulty buying a pint of milk, but a yard full of acolytes trying to get your attention. Deifans are often annoying and entitled, and spiteful when spurned. Organized religion can be a great pain, but disorganized religion is far worse. IMAGE AND ACTION For Demigods who don’t want to be recognized outside of a carefully crafted Legend, the threat of recognition is omnipresent, given their manifest Omens. For a Scion of Odin, someone noticing that your character’s eye is missing and that you seem to be followed around by ravens will recognize them if they’ve got the equivalent of Occult — and if a character wants to obfuscate their Omens somehow, that’s a Complication. One of the ways in which Scions deal with these issues is by simply not being obvious. A single trip to the Underworld can change your character’s perception of the World — and change them, too. When they choose to use their powers for the good of their community (or not so good for their community) they will be changed, not just in how you see yourself, but in how others see them. Scions manage this appearance in different ways. In general, covering tattoos is better with clothing, instead of with makeup (because magical tattoos tend to glow through the foundation). Giving their Creature a collar is better than not… but not all Creatures are collar friendly, and sometimes those collars and leashes vanish. Explaining some expensive jewelry is probably easy but not when there’s a glowing gem set into your antique pendant, or a swirling soul at the center of the engagement ring. No, most Demigods accept that they now have a brand and a narrative, and work to craft that narrative in the World. Most Scions stick to their chosen communities, be it neighborhood, city, or state, full of people who have reasons to stick by the Scion’s chosen narrative in the face of a hostile World. Those who venture out find a host of branding management firms specifically tailored to the needs of the divine. Some are guilds (see Origin, p. 29) that specialize in harmonizing the Scion’s Cult with the extant organized religion of the pantheon, but no few are glossy, sleek professional organizations based out of skyscrapers, ready to help shape public opinion in return for some direct divine favor. Even with professional representation, it’s a little harder to explain away some other manifestations of Demigodhood. A Scion of Persephone can’t apply for family leave for six months out of the year; the United States, and most other World governments, don’t recognize a change in the seasons as a reason to deny an employer the right to terminate a contract. Absences for sojourns into the Underworld aren’t the only thing preventing regular social interaction via a professional relationship; it’s also murder on personal relationships with those who are still breathing. People ask questions, people are inherently

42 CHAPTER ONE: STORYGUIDING APOTHEOSIS obnoxiously curious. If a Scion is open to educating the public about their experiences, well, bully for them. But not everyone feels warm and fuzzy about the unwashed masses. A Scion must grow used to the loss of their privacy and the loss of any semblance of a normal life and must take agency in the stories told about them. WHERE YOU LIVE In addition to the “what you wear” and “how you appear” problems, there’s the natural issue of where one lives. Once people know something has changed, once the news has made it through the neighborhood watch that their neighbor is really a Scion of Morrigan (which handily explains the dozen murders of crows that have moved onto the phone wires), that Scion has more problems. The obvious solution to “protect your property” is of course to get a fence. But moats filled with snakes and alligators don’t meet most city codes, and even if they did, that’s a lot of upkeep. Fences don’t keep out the most determined of wannabe acolytes, and unless it’s eight feet tall and built of stone, a good telephoto lens can still capture pictures of you playing with your mortal children. Some Demigods move. They choose a new house, they move somewhere with acres of land to hide in, or into apartment buildings designed to support the rich and famous; apartment buildings where the price goes to bodyguards in mirrored sunglasses and the silence of not noticing who lives in Apartment 2B. But some divine parents (like Brigid, for example) don’t approve of their Scions walling themselves off from the populace. For some, the advantage of hiding away inside a corporate tower, or far in the woods is a fantasy. As discussed, it’s hard to go incognito. But it’s not difficult to use the internet. Ordering your favorite Chinese food, groceries, even hiring a dog walker are all there for you to book through the magic of technology. As long as your Legend doesn’t make using cell phones difficult — some relics and Purviews short out technology, drain battery life, and discombobulate Wi-Fi like nothing else. It’s also not difficult to enlist some aid directly from your pantheon; many of the small servants of the Gods are happy to help a Scion for some sort of supernatural patronage. Of course, the truly old-fashioned way to manage these problems is to talk to the mortals who you care about. Information security is at its most vulnerable when people don’t know what they’re allowed to say. Your character’s aunt is the type to brag about her nephew, the Scion of Odin, who quite literally removed his eye so he could gain the knowledge of the World. For some reason, her pride overwhelms her complete disbelief that these things are, in fact, real. Family is the point of no return, so what does a Demigod do? Stop having a family beyond the Gods? Do they choose to cut ties or Fatebind and imperil their mortal loved ones? Or do they have the hard conversations about what they need your family to do to keep themselves safe, to keep their lives somewhat private, and to give the Scion the opportunity to live some kind of life no matter how weird it gets? DISABLED DEMIGODS Humanity is how the Gods know themselves, and humanity can see themselves in the Gods. Many Godly Legends are connected with specific disabilities: Hephaestus’ limp, Tyr’s missing hand, Nuada’s missing arm, Odin’s missing eye, Horus’s missing eye, Black Tezcatlipoca’s missing foot, THREE FIRMS Queen Jane’s is a well-regarded Deifan publication going back a half-century, one of the oldest and one of the only ones to achieve mainstream popularity. Jane’s takes the amateur element of Deifanhood and renders it into the highly professional, and remains a community of diehard, old-school Deifans that didn’t originate online. Interviews with Scions, reports from academia about religious topics, long-form reporting on controversial events with Collateral damage — a reporter from Jane’s showing up needs no introduction, and the magazine has a long reach. Greg Arrow is obsessed with Demigods and Incarnations. His Godcast, called GodArrow (“Finding the Gods on Earth and Putting them Online”) has millions of listeners dedicated to finding out who amongst them is a God among men. His Godcast is frankly dangerous; he makes peoples’ identities public, spams the World with that information, and never apologizes for it. His social media posts are comprised mainly of bad grammar and typos, most of which are also blasphemous. A classic Cassandra, Arrow brings bad luck and ill Fate to all around him. Fenris Response Team is the high-powered, high-paying arm of the international weapons manufacturer dedicated to helping young Æsir out of their predicaments. Nearly every Response Team member is a young person with a law or public relations degree wearing an expensive, tailored suit; many of them have prosthetic limbs or are veterans. Their divinely ordained mission is to ensure the preparations for Ragnarok proceed unhindered by would-be do-gooders. As a side effect, they strive to get out in front of public relations disasters for the Norse pantheon and work with governments and media outlets to make sure Demigods important to the World After Ragnarok aren’t reviled by the public. It’s not uncommon for an Æsir Scion to finish slaying a troll, only to find that the press release went out three hours before they started.

Coping with Fame 43 and Osiris’ missing genitals are all excellent examples. Demigods are not immune to injury, but a Demigod who takes on a disabling injury in service to a Deed may find themselves inextricably bound. Playing a Demigod who has taken on this kind of a Legend relationship means that you’re also taking on the idea of playing a disabled character. Disability theory describes the concept of a disabled character so overpowered that their disability is overshadowed by their strengths — whether it be magic, athletic prowess, or something else. Unlike the blindness as punishment narratives of many mythologies and fantasy novels, this isn’t a context of disability is bad but instead is the context of disability gives me a different ability. Certainly, it could be said that the trope of a blind person sensing more about their surroundings without sight could come from this concept. Yet there’s a particularly pernicious amount of mythology about blindness; many stories in many cultures reference blind people who can see the dead, who can see the future, who can see things even when they cannot see the World around them. It’s tempting to imagine that having something taken away from you grants you something exceptional in return. While these stories may seem cool, they ultimately undermine what the disability is — a lack of sight. Having a character who can see the future after they’re rendered blind is okay, but if you take nothing else from these sections, it’s to be sensitive to the pain of real people. It’s a trope, and an oftentimes lazy one. Don’t try to make a disability cool just for the special effects. Related to disabilities granting some superhuman capability is commentary by able-bodied people how amazing it is when a disabled person does something relatively ordinary. This can range from praising a blind person for crossing the street by themself or telling a wheelchair user that the fact they lift weights makes you feel like you have no excuse. Try not to put disabled people on pedestals as the best-of-the-best but treat them as real and whole people who make mistakes and live life like you do. Not just in Scion but in general. These narratives suggest that if you’re just good enough at something, or if you have the right set of powers or abilities you don’t have to be disabled at all, because being disabled is a bad thing. Rather than everyone

44 CHAPTER ONE: STORYGUIDING APOTHEOSIS seeing disability as a bad thing or as a mark of ugliness, sometimes that disabled person you’ve met is actually an Incarnate God or Demigod, and their disability is sacred by default. ODIN AND TYR Take the mythology of Odin in the Scion setting. The God, as in our world, has always been associated with the loss of sight. In myth, Odin removed his eye in order to gain knowledge of the World; and as a result, many of his Scions either do the same deliberately as an act of devotion, or acquire blindness through another method such as an accident, disease, or simply being born with a single eye. Traditionally, removing an eye or a hand has not been considered a sacrifice but a way to accept the knowledge of a God. That knowledge is not just about what they must give the character, but a deeply personal part of the experience of that being. In the case of Odin, that includes being able to only see out of one eye. In the case of Tyr, that means that you are one-handed for eternity. If this loss was taken in response to or in the occurrence of a Divine Deed, the Scion’s maiming is part of their Mantle. The loss of one capability (sight, a hand, a perfect gait) is given back to the Scion in the form of a greater knowledge or understanding of the World. When playing a Demigod with a disability, think a lot about how to not have them be extra effective because of their disability. Tyr’s martial prowess isn’t helped by his injury, but he’s developed means to compensate. Not all disabled people who manifest with the disability of a God are in fact a Demigod of their order. But a disabled person who lives with the same condition as a God can opt into that choice. It’s a little like joining a club: You can decide your character is one of Odin’s Daughters, and therefore the loss of an eye as a child counts. Or she can continue walking some other path of humanity in the setting. Odin will simply smile on her adventures from afar, sharing in her struggles and her pain through the very human notion of sympathy. When deciding to play a Demigod who has either chosen to embrace a disability concurrent with the disability of their God, or a character who was born with a disability that they choose to adopt the patron of, it’s important to get the details right. A Scion of Odin might never be able to see out of two eyes. What that means is that she won’t have depth perception; she will likely wear a prosthetic eye or a scleral shell. She may choose to wear a prosthetic which hides a cataract, or she might show it to the World. HUMAN PROBLEMS, MAGICAL SOLUTIONS In terms of how magic and disability intersect, certain magic powers — especially in Health or Fertility — can remove or negate Persistent Conditions that represent various forms of disability. A God’s touch can regrow limbs or make infertile people able to bear children. Of course, the healing processes those Gods employ are not always pleasant. Scions or Incarnations of Askleipos have been known to cure blindness and low vision for years — in the modern era they advertise laser eye surgery, but once you’re in the offices of an Askleipos doctor, you’re offered an enchanted snake instead of a laser. Cures are tricky when talking about disabilities — it’s advised to not play out cure narratives without the consent and buy in of everyone at the table. Cures are a huge part of Scion, and yours may be able to manifest strong healing powers, but cure narratives can affect disabled people. Traditionally, they’re seen as toxic because they emphasize completeness and abled ability above all: They prioritize an able-bodied narrative over a disabled narrative, saying that it is better to be whole than broken. In a setting where claiming a disability is a sacred act, rejection of disability could be seen as profane. Frequently these narratives also indicate that there is no cost to healing; that being disabled can disappear with a snap of a God’s fingers. If your (the Storyguide’s) table does choose to engage in cure narratives, find ways to undermine the stereotype of finger snap healing. Find ways for there to be a cost to curing a disability. If someone had their hearing restored for the first time in their life, the World isn’t going to be all chirping birds and purring kittens, it’s going to be a riot of overstimulation, honking car horns and screaming babies, for a person who has never experienced them before. SACRED AND PROFANE What these choices boil down to is a dynamic of the sacred and profane. To cover or cure the manifestation of a disability borne by a Legend, you deny the very nature of that Legend. Do you think Tyr can’t quest to grow his hand back? To do so would dishonor the sacrifice he made in binding Fenris, and possibly un-bind the wolf to boot. Disability is written on the body, and therefore that writing is sacred according to the Legend the character has sworn. It is possible to modify such disabilities with adaptive aids, but not with adaptive aids which circumvent the disability entirely. A white cane or a guide dog is an acceptable adaptation, but a prosthetic eye that sees with a video camera is not. A prosthetic hand like Nuada’s is fine, but a regrown hand is not. A Scion must still experience the disability as a part of their life for it to count as an element of their Legend. Disability being sacred means that the act of receiving a disability may not be a mournful moment. A person who becomes Scion of Odin won’t mourn the loss of their eye, because they have other gifts. They have reasons for having made that choice. A Scion of Tyr may not miss their hand — and the prosthetic they replace it with may be a beloved artifact. Such was the case for Nuada’s silver hand, even though, yeah, he later got his hand regrown. Details like prosthetics do matter when it comes to disabled Legends and Scions because they represent independent living and access to a way of life commensurate with their abled peers. A Scion of Hephaestus may be born with a limp, or a leg injury. But there is also the possibility of a Scion or

Fate as the Foe 45 mortal gaining a limp through dedication to the God. In some cases (like this one) it is less to do with an individual taking a newfound disability into their own hands, as with a Daughter of Odin who removes her own eye but may instead be a side effect of worship. A limp comes with a promise, in this case. You don’t get to choose which leg, or how severe, it just… is. LANGUAGE AND DISABILITY The language used to speak about disability is important. Broadly, there are two acceptable terms: disabled person and person with a disability. Either is acceptable, though the former is more universally preferred. Using respectful language (especially when you are an abled player playing a disabled character) is vital. Words like “lame,” “retarded,” “crippled,” and “midget” should not be used in any capacity to describe a person. The appropriate language is “limp-” or “mobility-impaired,” “intellectually disabled,” “disabled,” and “little person” respectively. This matters — devaluing disabilities is counterintuitive in a game where disability can mark you as a God. These words carry hatred, an otherness that cannot be shaken. In the modern World, the disability community has sought to reclaim many of them, to take the venom out of the World and own it for themselves. If your character is disabled and self-identifies as a cripple, do research into understanding the reclamation of that word before using it. But a disabled character will likely just call themselves that: disabled. Some might identify as an amputee or a blind woman, some might call themselves a deafie (a term for deaf people). Disability is a piece of many disabled people’s identities, which is why using slurs is problematic. FATE AS THE FOE The trouble with Fate is that, for all its power over the lives of Demigods, you can’t actually strike back at Fate, only defy its expectations (which, often, only makes one’s own life more miserable). It can be difficult to build narrative drama or tension around a conflict in which one party is a nebulous and largely ephemeral force. There are two solutions to this: Focus the conflict on the character or give Fate a face. Since player characters are already the central focus of any game, the first part is more or less the simple option. Remember that Fate doesn’t form in a vacuum but is ultimately bound up in and clinging to past actions the character has taken. A destiny to break hearts might have started with a single bad breakup at a poorly chosen moment; a bloody and terrible war might have its origins in a conflict between friends. Decisions taken long ago, at least from the perspective of the character struggling with their aftermath, have outsized ramifications thanks to the amplifying force of Fate. Play up those old decisions. Remind the players of them with repeated motifs, like little narrative footnotes pointing back to the original source of the Fatebinding. Perhaps that trail of broken hearts started with a Chloe, and while not every estranged ex-partner thereafter will be a Chloe, there’ll be more than one might expect given random selection. Wounds sustained by allies in battle might mirror a scar the character still carries, the legacy of that initial conflict. In this way, the people around the Demigod, the people she cares about most, become reflections of the character’s own Fate, which bleeds into the World around her. When it comes to giving Fate a face, the same principle applies, but in reverse. Instead of playing up the characters’ former actions, play up strange leitmotifs in the world around them. For example, in the film The Sixth Sense, (spoiler warning!) the color red is prominently featured in every scene in which Bruce Willis’ character, who dies at the beginning of the movie, interacts with a living person. You can do this with repeated phrases or aphorisms, recurring imagery or symbols, or Storyguide characters who, though not tied to the action, always manage to turn up in the strangest places. If you accompany your game with a soundtrack, you could tie a specific piece or style of music to certain events — players love things like this! FATE’S HAND ON THE SCALES Storyguides aren’t limited merely to narrative flags when it comes to foreshadowing and influencing the course of a character’s Apotheosis. Floating Divine Deeds can be attached to a Storyguide character who is Fatebound to the character (if the Storyguide character isn’t Fatebound to the character, this effectively Fatebinds them without costing a Fatebinding slot, so choose an appropriate role). Doing so places them center-stage in the character’s future, so you may want to consider rebuilding them using character creation if they’re an Antagonist, but it’s not required. Characters bound up in a Divine Deed like this often end up changed as outlined in Fatebinding and You (p. 38). When a floating Divine Deed is attached to a Storyguide character, regardless of the system used to design her, she gains a Quality or Flair emblematic of the role in Fate she will play for the character. One of the existing Qualities or Flairs can serve for this purpose, but if you feel adventurous, try your hand at creating one for yourself to fit the Deed like a glove. It doesn’t have to be anything fancy, and indeed, could be as simple as a +2 Enhancement to any action that supports her Fate-decreed role. Look over Knacks, Boons, Qualities, and Flairs to see how they interact with the Storypath system if you feel like you have writer’s block. Knacks and Qualities tend to be simple statements of fact with some associated mechanical support — they’re “always on,” so to speak — while Boons and Flairs are usually (but not always) abilities that must be activated to take effect. Remember that instead of Momentum or Legend, Storyguide characters spend Tension to fuel these abilities if necessary.

46 CHAPTER ONE: STORYGUIDING APOTHEOSIS RATCHETING UP THE TENSION Fate doesn’t like it when its pawns don’t play along, and as characters grow beyond Heroes and become Demigods, the pressure heaped on them to conform to expectations only grows. Mechanically, those pressures have previously been represented, at least in part, by Tension. This is still the case, but Fate (and the Storyguide) has a new source of dramatic oomph in Demigod play. If a character is presented with an opportunity to fulfill a floating Divine Deed and either refuses or circumvents the situation such that the Deed remains unfulfilled, immediately refresh the Tension pool to its normal starting value. If it already has an amount of Tension equal to or greater than its starting value, add Tension equal to the character’s current Legend. KEEPING PLATES SPINNING Most Storyguides aren’t just keeping track of one player’s character and her journey to Apotheosis — usually, they’re keeping track of at least three or four! Even with the relatively straightforward and flexible structure of floating Divine Deeds, that’s a lot to keep a handle on, especially if one or more of the Deeds represents a choice that might go any number of ways. One way to help simplify matters is to diagram them with a decision tree, with each floating Deed the nexus of several likely options. This allows the Storyguide to visualize the entire arc of the character’s story as a path, beginning at one side of a page and ending at the other, as the character begins mortal and ends as a God, broadly speaking. Thinking about the various permutations of choices will help when the player almost inevitably does something you didn’t expect, giving you ideas to fall back on. Remember, too, that a character’s Divine Deeds are a long game, played out over entire story arcs. Even if a Storyguide is totally blindsided, the most they must do is get through a play session while keeping everything they’re juggling in the air. After that, she’ll presumably have downtime during which she can adjust future beats in the arc, with consultation with the player as necessary. EXAMPLE OF DIVINE DEEDS IN PLAY Hippolyta Byrne, Angela’s character, was raised by the Amazons of Clan Ephos and adopted by Artemis. As a Hero, she made a name for herself as a defender of women and of the queer community in particular. Now, taking her first steps into the World as a nascent Demigod, the time has come to consider just what sort of a Goddess she might become. Sophia, the Storyguide, has a chat with Angela. Together, they come to an agreement about Hippolyta’s likely future — a Goddess of boundaries, and specifically a guardian of those who must transition across them. Armed with this knowledge, Sophia goes to work, laying out the floating Divine Deeds that will define Hippolyta’s path from mortal to Goddess. A Guardian at heart, Sophia knows that Lyta (and Angela) will need something to spur her to action. She decides that it would be appropriately thematic if it involved surmounting an artificially imposed barrier of some kind. Setting the motif early lets it resonate throughout the story, culminating in Hippolyta’s final form. For an appropriate Deed, she brings back a foe Lyta faced shortly after her Visitation. Next, she needs to consider an oppositional figure for Hippolyta. Given where she’s going, it makes sense for her to struggle against a deity of propriety, law, or something similar. Hera could work for this, or Athena, or even Zeus himself (because despite his trickery, he’s the highest authority amongst the Theoi). Sophia doesn’t need to settle on this just now — eventually, Angela’s choices and Hippolyta’s actions will lead her down one of these roads (or a different one, for that matter, but Sophia will cross that bridge when she comes to it). Once the terms of the conflict and the opponent are set, Sophia needs to define how that battle will kick into high gear. Hippolyta settled into her Callings of Guardian, Warrior, and Lover fairly early on; Sophia’s going to challenge that, and she sets her sights on the Warrior Calling straight-away. Even though she was raised for war, the path Lyta’s walking leads to a hugely different role in the World, protecting those who struggle against restrictions and barriers rather than tearing them down herself. Sophia plans on events calling her Warrior aspect into question, which might take the form of two opposed groups of iconoclasts or a cause she might find herself wrapped up in that rejects violence entirely. She jots those ideas down, then pauses to consider. It’s entirely possible that Lyta could choose to forswear her Lover Calling in the name of clinging to her Warrior Calling. That would change the nature of the Goddess Lyta’s becoming in a much more proactive and rabble-rousing way, so that she’d eventually become a deity of rebellion and righteous causes, one whose name would find purchase on the lips of countless revolutionaries and activists. Sophia likes the potential drama of that choice and makes a note to the effect — it’s unlikely the story will reach this point soon, but she’ll be ready when it does. Fatebinding plays a role in this process as well. As Lyta’s mythic power matures, her Fatebindings will shift from individuals to entire groups and places and pull far more powerfully upon her. Clan Ephos is an obvious choice, but there’s also the college campus where she works as a counselor, and which she’s defended from more than one threat, both mundane and mythic. There’s the local queer community as well, a Balm if ever Sophia’s seen one. These touchstones will play a significant role in the story of Lyta’s

Example of Divine Deeds in Play 47 death and rebirth as a Goddess as Avoidances begin to force her hand. Case in point: When it comes to the shedding of mortal ties, Sophia knows exactly where to hit home. Hippolyta’s family is a sprawling Amazon clan, as ready for a good fight as anyone, and many of them have accompanied her on her Heroic adventures. Thus far, they’ve been lucky, in no small part thanks to Lyta herself, who has fought long and hard to keep them safe, but Sophia can be cruel when she needs to be, and there’s nothing that would hurt Lyta more than losing members of her family. Perhaps Telepyleia, the aged matriarch, falls in battle because of an error in Lyta’s judgement; or perhaps her cousin Penthesilea, heir apparent before Lyta’s Visitation, finally succumbs to jealousy and turns against her, forcing Lyta to slay her closest friend or die on her blade — and perhaps visit her shade in the Underworld to seek or offer forgiveness. Sophia loves that last part so much that she underlines it in her notes and decides that, if the story permits it, that’s just how she wants Lyta to meet her mortal end when it comes time for the fifth and final step in the process of Apotheosis. She may never get there — five steps are a long way when it comes to a narrative arc, and a lot can change in the meantime — but it’d be a story that she (and more importantly, Angela) would never forget.

Titanic Callings 49 “There was an old abbot in one temple and he said something of which I think often and it was this, that when men destroy their old gods they will find new ones to take their place”. — Pearl S. Buck The World contains many pantheons and many Gods, some as old as history itself. This chapter refers to five of them. All of the pantheons in this chapter are marked by ancient problems; some are markedly less prevalent and potent in the modern World, and all of them have members who would be deemed Titanic by other pantheons. Still, each pantheon works to better their position in the World, and each has contributed a Creation Myth that helps to solidify natural law and anchor reality against itself. SCENT THE DIVINE The Scent the Divine Knack is a character choice and optional regular feature in Hero. At the Demigod level, it becomes a regular part of the Scion’s daily life (see p. 130). For the new pantheons in this book, the particular scents, sounds, and sensory feelings associated are: Annuna: Baking clay; a bustling and crowded market Apu: Llama wool, thin mountain air; the whistling whir of a sling Atua: The salt of the sea; different seafoods cooking at once Bogovi: Rich, loamy earth; the rustling of dried, cracked leaves in autumn Tengri: Horseflesh and sweat, incense; throat singing Scions know one another the way horses do: scent and sound. More medically or academically minded Scions note that even a human’s comparatively poor olfactory sense can differentiate between more gradients in smells than the eye can distinguish colors and shades. Smell links more intimately with memory and emotions than any other sense; the mere whiff of soup simmering on the stove can bring back a suite of childhood memories. For Scions scenting signs of their pantheon, the memories that return are far older and deeper than the golden years of childhood. It’s common for cultists to have incense or perfumes that have smells reminiscent of a pantheon’s scent, but someone with the Knack can always distinguish the real thing. TITANIC CALLINGS Four pantheons in this book have prominent members with Titanic Callings, aspects of their divinity that are defined more by how they relate to the World and one another than to humanity. The Annuna consider the embodiment of their authority to be paramount, which keeps near-Titanic members in line but lends them to having an inhuman perspective. The Bogovi embody a duality within themselves, occasionally finding a polar opposite to their own humanity. The Tengri are simply cosmopolitan enough to contain Titans in their ranks. The Atua don’t just reject the distinction between God and Titan — they embody that rejection. All four pantheons proudly and seriously assume roles and wield abilities other pantheons associate with their archenemies, such as the following Callings. • An Adversary defines themselves by dedicated, aggressive opposition through violence, TITANIC CALLINGS IN HERO The creation of Titanic Callings as a system topic postdates the Gods featured in the pantheons of Hero. Conceptually speaking, if you’re going to let half-Titans into some pantheons, you probably have to acknowledge the ones who should already be present in the game — it’s only fair. The following isn’t a complete list, but just the most obvious Gods. Any God with a monstrous countenance or deeply inhuman aspect has the potential for a Titanic Calling; Certainly, many pantheons like the Shén will have legitimate members who are Titans or possess Titanic Callings. Storyguides should feel free to treat some Gods with exceptions, however; for example, Ares’ Mantles of Mars still treat his Callings as Guardian, Lover, and Warrior, while the various component Goddesses who make up the Morrigan may take turns swapping Mantles to make sure none get too monstrous. Full rules for playing with these Callings are available in Titanomachy, while full rules for playing Scions with a Titanic heritage are available in Saints and Monsters. Agni: Primeval Ares: Destroyer Kali: Destroyer Shiva: Destroyer Itzpapalotl: Monster, Primeval The Morrigan: Destroyer, Monster Tawiscara: Adversary